Lambasting 
Public  Service 
Corporations 


By 
E.  E.  WAGNER 


19    16 

FRIENDLY  SENTIMENT  CO. 

Rockefeiler  Building 
CLEVELAND,  OHIO,  V.  S.  A. 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 
By  E.  E.  Wagner 
Cleveland,  Ohio 


WD 

5-163 


rO  that  unfair,  unscrupulous,  and  danger- 
ous individual,  the  editor  of  a  Yellow  Back 
Newspaper,  and  to  his  equally  dangerous  crony, 
the  blackleg  politician,  this  book  is  dedicated, 
with  the  hope  that  it  will  help  them  to  realize  the 
injury  and  unpleasantness  that  is  caused  by  their 
miserable  dishonesty  with  the  people  they  are 
supposed  to  serve  and  protect. 


O 


;$84I)8 


Author's  Plea 

A  FEW  years  ago  I  was  muckraking  public  service 
corporations. 

I   abhorred   public   service   men   and   they   de- 
spised me. 

Our  mutual   hatred   was   the   result  of   misunder- 
standing. 

And  the  public  service  corporations  were  largely  at 
fault. 

They  had  never  told  me  anything  about  their  prob- 
lems or  their  service  other  than  try  to  persuade  me  to 
use  it. 

They  were  stand-offish,  secretive,  mysterious  and  sus- 
picious acting. 

Their's  was  not  a  business  founded  on  friendship  and 
apparently  they  made  no  eflfort  to  make  and  keep  friends. 

They  were  selling  a  necessity  that  had  to  be  used 
v^'hether  you  were  friendly  or  not?  If  they  sold  their 
output,  they  seemed  to  be  satisfied. 

Notice  that  I  say  "they  seemed  to  be  satisfied." 

They  were  not  satisfied !     I  have  since  learned  that 

they  wanted  to  be  friendly  and  wanted  friends,  but  they 
had  been  repulsed  so  often  in  their  advances  that  it 
seemed  to  be  misdirected  energy  to  try  any  longer. 

For  years  they  had  borne  in  silence  a  tirade  of  censure 
and  abuse  from  the  Yellow  Back  newspapers  and  nonde- 
script politicians,  that  had  almost  led  them  to  believe  that 
it  was  hopeless  to  try  and  make  friends. 


They  knew  that  most  of  the  criticism  directed  against 
them  was  untrue  and  prompted  by  selfish  motives.  And 
they  had  abiding  faith  in  the  maxim  "Right  Wins,  Might 
Never."  But  tliey  were  mistaken  in  thinking  that  Right 
could  win  without  some  assistance. 

Public  service  corporations  are  now  awakening  from 
their  lethargy.  They  are  commencing  to  talk  about  them- 
selves and  making  it  really  difficult  for  Yellow  Backs  to 
cram  down  the  throats  of  the  people  wild  stories  about 
immense  profits,  legislative  pussyfooting,  court  con- 
trol, etc. 

This  change  in  sentiment  is  also  being  aided  by  mu- 
nicipal experiments  and  failures  with  public  service 
plants  of  one  kind  and  another.  These  plants  are  prov- 
ing to  the  people  that  the  privately  owned  public  utility 
has  been  giving  them  a  square  deal  and  that  they  can 
give  better  service  at  less  cost  than  a  plaything  in  the 
hands  of  politicians.  The  people  are  also  beginning  to 
realize  that  somebody  has  not  given  them  absolute  facts. 

Just  this  morning  I  was  talking  with  a  keen-scented 
old  public  service  man  whose  intelligent  perceptions  of 
the  future  are  highly  regarded  by  all  who  know  him. 
*A'hile  we  were  talking  he  said : 

"The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  Yellow  Back  news- 
papers will  be  a  forgotten  menace  of  the  past.  They 
have  their  own  graves  half  dug  at  the  present  time. 

"The  people  want  the  newspapers  to  tell  tlic  truth — 
they  do  not  want  to  be  lied  to  or  lied  about,  and  they 
will  vote  for  anything  that  will  force  the  newspapers  to 
tell  the  truth.  Give  them  a  chance  to  vote  on  a  bill  mak- 
ing public  utilities  out  of  the  newspapers  and  they  will 
vote  90  to  10  in  favor  of  it. 

"With  one  morning  and  one  evening  newspaper  in 
cich  citv,  controlled  bv  the  trovcrnnicnt  and  deleted  of  all 


fakes,  falsehoods  and  injurious  reading  matter,  we  would 
begin  to  appreciate  public  control  of  high  and  mighty 
corporations,  rendering  a  public  service." 

Three  years  ago  I  would  have  laughed  at  this  man. 
Today  I  am  not  even  amused — I  am  impressed. 

Newspaper  men  will  laugh  at  him  today.  They  feel 
secure.  The  very  fact  that  they  say  "it  cannot  be  done" 
is  positive  proof  that  they  believe  they  are  complete  mas- 
ters of  the  people  and  whosoever  would  take  part  in 
making  them  public  service  corporations. 

Now  please  do  not  confuse  this  book  as  being  a  general 
attack  on  all  newspapers.  The  vast  majority  of  our 
papers  try  to  be  absolutely  square  and  above  board.  They 
are  just  as  anxious  to  be  rid  of  the  Yellow  Backs  as  you 
are.  They  realize  that  their  business  is  blackened  just  as 
much  by  unfair  and  crooked  newspapers  as  yours  is  by 
unscrupulous  and  dishonest  public  utilities. 

They  are  the  newspapers  to  whom  you  owe  your  sup- 
port. They  are  the  only  ones  in  which  you  can  hope  to 
secure  gratifying  results  from  honest,  sane,  constructive 
publicity  and  advertising.  Enough  for  the  newspapers. 
Now  for  my  plea. 

In  reading  this  book,  please  have  patience.  Try  and 
remember  that  I  am  not  an  author.  I  have  merely  set 
down  here  as  I  could  think  of  them,  some  of  my  experi- 
ences in  the  newspaper  and  public  service  business,  and 
what  they  have  taught  me. 

Perfect  continuity  may  be  lacking.  Probably  I  will 
not  say  things  just  as  you  would.  And  maybe  you  will 
not  agree  entirely  with  me.  However,  I  sincerely  believe 
that  every  public  service  man  will  find  some  profit  in  a 
perusal  of  its  pages.     I  commit  it  to  your  tender  mercy. 

E.  E.  WAGNER. 


I 


Lambasting  Public  Service 
Corporations 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Dream 

T  is  an  awful  thing  to  blame  God  for  things  as  they 
are. 


To  me,  it  has  always  been  terrible   for  a  mere 
human  to  sit  in  judgment  on  Him. 

That  is  why  I  can  hardly  realize  that  these  are  my 
thoughts. 

I  am  not  sacrilegious.  I  am  not  a  moral  leper.  Neither 
am  I  a  liar  nor  a  thief.    I  am  not  a  menace  to  society. 

If  I  am  wrong  in  thinking  as  T  do — I  am  sorry. 

But  sorry  or  not,  it  is  beyond  my  ken  to  understand 
just  why  there  was  a  Snake  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

Neither  can  I  understand  why  two  cold,  limbless,  ter- 
rifying Snakes  were  permitted  to  wriggle  from  the  Ark. 

But  they  were  and  all  through  the  ages,  in  all  climes, 
there  have  lived  progeny  of  this  pair,  with  sacks  of  poison 
in  pointed  fangs. 

There  has  never  been  a  good  square  sport  among  the 
bunch — unless  it  might  be  the  rattler. 

The  bared  foot  of  a  child — the  slender  ankle  of  a 
maid — the  careless  foot  of  a  peasant — all  have  been 
pierced,  stung,  scared,  by  these  creeping  reptiles. 

P>ut  as  civilization  advanced  ;  as  blazed  trails  became 


paved  roads ;  as  congested  cities  grew  in  the  wilderness, 
the  Snake  crept  away  or  was  exterminated. 


I  now  imagine  that  I  am  in  the  dwelHng  place  of  the 
Deity.    God  is  reviewing  the  work  of  the  Hand  of  Man. 

''There  is  New  York  City,"  he  says.  "And  Cleve- 
land, and  Cincinnati  and  Chicago."  And  he  goes  on  nam- 
ing a  number  of  cities.  "The  Snakes  I  placed  in  those 
places  are  extinct.  Man  has  transgressed  my  laws — has 
overshadowed  my  work.  He  has  annihilated  the  Snakes 
I  placed  there." 

Against  my  will,  I  am  forced  to  believe  that  there  was 
some  good  reason  for  placing  Snakes  on  this  earth.  Else, 
why  would  they  have  been  placed  here? 

So  I  imagine  that  He  was  angered  when  they  were 
destroyed  with  abandon.  Naturally  a  substitute  had  to 
be  found — one  which  would  go  its  slimy  way  destroying, 
stinging,  spreading  terror. 

It  must  have  been  quite  a  job  to  create  anything  so 
loathsome  that  it  could  replace  the  Snake. 

But  finally  the  labor  was  finished. 

The  Yellow  Newspaper  was  born. 

The  work  was  well  done. 

And  now,  give  us  back  the  slippery  Snake  of  the 
wilderness.  Let  it  crawl  into  the  chimneys  of  our  fire- 
places if  necessary — let  it  live  in  the  sewers  of  our  city 
by  night  and  come  forth  in  the  light  where  we  can  see  it 
and  sidestep  it  if  possible — let  it  be  any  place  at  any  time, 
a  danger  to  our  bodies  if  it  will  save  us  from  the  stinking 
yellow  poison  decaying  the  minds  of  our  children — of 
our  people. 


So  I  thought  as  I  sat  smoking  before  my  warm  fire- 
place. 

These  are  the  reasons: 

Of  all  the  men  in  all  the  world,  none  are  so  abused 
and  maligned  as  the  average  public  service  corporation 
man  A  murderer  gets  better  treatment — kinder  words 
— greater  sympathy. 

Just  why  this  is  true,  is  mystifying  to  most  of  them. 
A  public  service  man  isn't  any  different  from  any  other 
man.  He  has  two  legs,  two  arms,  a  mouth,  a  nose,  some 
ears  and  eyes  and  a  heart.  He  may  have  curly  hair  or 
he  may  be  bald.  He  may  be  a  bachelor  or  he  may  be 
married  and  have  nine  children. 

At  any  rate  he  is  a  human  being  in  the  business  of 
serving  the  people  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 

That  he  should  always  be  cartooned  as  a  bloated,  red 
nosed,  ponderous  personage  with  a  "$"  mark  suit  of 
clothes  and  the  toe  of  his  boot  in  the  nether  end  of  a 
little  weazened-up  cuss  labeled  "Common  People"  is  be- 
yond my  reason. 

But  he  is  caricatured  thusly  and  must  suffer  thereby. 


Ahcient  Sport  of  Monopoly 


The  above  is  the  type  of  cartoon  that  is  very  unfair  to  a 
public  service   corporation. 


J 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Passing  of  Moses 

UST  as  malignant  as  some  cartoons  which  sometimes 
appear  in  otherwise  fair  papers,  are  the  attacks  in  the 
news  and  editorial  columns  of  Yellow  Back  news- 


papers. 

The  Yellow  Back  does  not  give  two  whoops  this  side 
of  perdition  if  a  corporation  is  straight  and  is  honestly 
furnishing  a  valuable  service.  Just  as  long  as  public  utility 
corporations  spend  millions  to  serve  the  people  and  just  as 
long  as  there  are  irresponsible  Yellow  Backs,  just  that 
long,  I  suppose,  will  corporations  be  the  target  of  their 
ridicule  and  attack. 

These  convictions  are  the  result  of  experience.  I 
have  worked  on  unfair  newspapers.  I  have  had  my 
share  of  their  columns  in  which  to  attack — to  destroy. 
And  I  have  harpooned,  knifed  and  panned  about  every 
kind  of  corporation  and  corporation  man  in  America. 

And  I  thought  I  was  doing  a  wonderful  service.  I 
have  tried  to  run  city  hall,  the  gas  company,  the  electric 
company,  the  trolley  lines,  railroads  and  kindred  or- 
ganizations. 

Men  feared  the  sight  of  me.  In  my  own  mind's  pic- 
ture I  was  a  Moses  leading  the  common  people  from  tlu' 
wilderness. 

I  didn't  think  there  was  an  honest  man  in  the  world 
outside  of  myself  and  the  workingman. 

All  persons  who  did  not  labor  in  factories  and  carry 
dinner  pails  were  leeches  sucking  the  life-blood  from  little 
children,  anaemic  girls  and  sturdy  men. 


Isn't  it  strange  what  fools  we  can  make  of  ourselves  ? 
I  now  wonder  that  I  kidded  myself  into  believing  I  was 
such  a  marvel.  But  that  is  a  habit  with  Yellow  Back  re- 
porters.   It  is  sort  of  a  balm  to  their  consciences. 

Again  now,  do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  do  not  mean 
to  imply  that  every  newspaper  is  a  Yellow  Back,  and 
every  reporter  a  crook.  Neither  do  I  want  you  to  believe 
that  every  newspaper  which  has  or  will  print  attacks  on 
corporations  are  Yellow  Backs.  Very  often  a  paper  is 
justified  in  attacking  a  corporation. 

When  I  was  a  reporter,  for  some  papers,  I  despised 
public  service  men — because  I  had  to.  I  have  written 
column  after  column  of  unfair  and  unverified  copy  about 
them. 

Since  my  reporter  days  I  have  had  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  other  side — of  studying  the  habits  and  methods 
of  public  utilities.  The  revelation  has  been  pleasantly 
astonishing. 

If  the  American  people  were  getting  as  square  a  deal 
from  their  newspapers,  their  politicians,  their  butcher, 
baker  and  candlestick  maker,  there  would  not  be  so  many 
anarchists. 


CHAPTER  III 

Editor  Tries  to  Run  Gas  Company 

BECAUSE  I  was  once  a  newspaper  man  I  am  taken 
into  the  confidence  of  public  service  corporation 
men  from  many  parts  of  the  country,  who  tell  me 
their  tales  of  woe  and  ask  the  why  for  of  Yellow  Back 
attacks. 

Some  of  these  tales  are  interesting.  They  are  worth 
repeating. 

Some  time  ago  a  friend  employed  by  a  Gas  Company 
was  talking  with  me  about  advertising. 

His  company  was  spending  a  fair  size  appropriation 
in  constructive  publicity  that  was  doing  good.  It  was 
doing  all  the  advertising  it  could  honestly  do. 

But  a  Yellow  Back  in  his  city  was  not  satisfied.  It 
made  its  demands — diplomatic  and  inoffensive  of  course. 

He  held  oft". 

The  next  day  zero  weather  gripped  the  city.  The  util- 
ity organization  labored  valiantly  in  maintaining  its  serv- 
ice.    No  person  suffered. 

But  the  cringing  Yellow  Back  cried  "Gas  Shortage." 
It  tried  to  convince  the  people  that  there  was  a  gas  short- 
age and  that  the  utility— in  the  business  of  selling  gas, 
mark  you — was  actually  doing  all  within  its  power  to 
prevent  tiicm  from  getting  gas,  and  for  some  unexplained 
reason  was  making  them  suffer. 

The  editor  of  the  ])a|)er  had  been  in  the  city  for  six 
months. 


He  had  never  worked  for  a  gas  company. 

He  knew  absolutely  nothing  about  the  production, 
transportation  and  delivery  of  gas. 

But  in  his  columns  he  qualified  as  an  expert. 

He  told  how  to  prevent  a  gas  shortage — that  did  not 
exist.  "It  can  be  done,"  he  said,  "by  drilling  more  wells." 
Wonderful  intelligence ! 

Reporters  who  were  given  the  task  of  proving  their 
editor's  statements  telephoned  hundreds  of  homes.  They 
succeeded  in  corralling  a  few  alleged  complaints.  No 
mention  was  made  of  those  who  commended  the  service. 

"I  cannot  keep  warm  and  I  fear  for  the  life  of  my 
baby  who  is  ill,"  one  complainant  was  quoted. 

The  man  had  no  baby. 

"My  house  is  like  an  icicle,"  another  was  quoted.  This 
particular  person  had  been  gone  from  the  city  for  three 
years. 

"We  had  to  wear  our  coats  in  the  house,  we  couldn't 
get  gas,"  stated  an  employe  of  the  paper. 

He  did  not  have  a  gas  heating  appliance.  Neighbors 
had  abundant  gas. 

Such  was  the  proof.  Such  was  the  rot  the  paper  fed 
its  readers.  They  believed  it,  for  how  were  they  to  know 
that  their  neighbors  a  few"  blocks  away  were  not  suflFer- 
ing. 

Do  you  think  that  such  publicity  is  of  benefit  to  a 
city? 

Do  you  think  it  helps  a  city  for  a  newspaper  to  un- 
justly pan  an  industry  that  does  more  than  any  other 
single  element  for  a  cit}^ — merely  because  It  is  a  public 
service  corporation? 


By  the  way,  this  particular  paper  pays  a  much  greater 
per  cent  on  the  capital  invested  than  most  any  other  in- 
dustiy  in  the  city. 

It  declares  itself  to  be  the  protector  and  servant  of 
the  common  people. 

Some  day  some  person  is  going  to  take  such  news- 
papers at  their  word  and  introduce  a  bill  in  the  legislature 
to  have  newspapers  made  public  service  corporations. 

Then  watch  them  crawl. 

At  present  such  papers  are  the  plunderers  of  the  com- 
mon people,  the  plunderers  of  their  honest,  trusting 
minds,  and  the  plunderers  of  the  youth,  energy  and  im- 
])ulsiveness  of  their  reporters — most  of  whom  are  about 
20  years  old. 

Most  of  these  papers  have  reporters  from  18  to  25 
years  old.  Do  you  think  boys  of  this  age  have  experience 
enough  to  determine  what  kind  of  copy  shall  be  fed  to 
the  poor  suffering  newspaper  reader? 

When  you  think  of  it,  isn't  it  funny  that  a  bunch  of 
boys  are  permitted  to  run  loose  in  our  cities  attacking 
honest  industries  almost  at  will — provided  they  are  em- 
ployed by  a  Yellow  Back? 

That  is  what  hurts  most.  The  attacks  are  written  by 
impulsive  boys,  who  believe  they  arc  doing  right.  They 
put  real  zest  and  genuine  conviction  into  thc'.r  stories  for 
they  believe  what  they  write. 


Boost 

For  Your 

Own  City;  Boost 

For 

Yourself! 

Be  a  Builder! 
Don't  Destroy! 
Help  Build  Your 
City  Bigger  and 
Better. 

Your  City  is  Big — but  not  so  big  but  what  it  can  be 
boosted. 

In  Boosting  Your  City  you  are  Boosting  yourself^ 
helping  yourself. 

And  every  time  your  Boosting  grows  a  little  tame, 
just  remember — • 

Nothing  will  Harm  or  Dishonor  Your  Own  City 
and  Yourself  more  than  Knocking. 

Every  time  you  hurt  the  name  of  Your  City — Your 
Industries  and  Your  own  People — You  are 
Keeping  Good  Industries  and  Good  People 
away  from  Your  City. 

And  while  you  are  Boosting,  think  how  you  would 
be  situated  without  Electric  Service? 

Nothing  has  done  more  for  the  prosperity — the 
Happiness — the  Cleanliness  and  the  Health  of 
Your  City  than  Electric  Service. 

More  factories  and  more  good  people  have  been 
brought  to  Your  City  on  account  of  Electric 
Service  than  any  other  simple  element. 

Hasn't  Electric  Service  helped  you? 


The  advertisement  above  is  the  type  of  advertisement 
that  can  often  be  used  l)y  utilities  unjustly  attacked.  With 
few  changes  it  will  tit  any  utility. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Frightening  IndHstrials 

I  SHALL  never   forget  an  attack  made  on  a  public 
utility  in  a  western  city. 

The  company  transported  natural  gas  to  this  par- 
ticular city  in  large  quantities  for  domestic  and  industrial 
use. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  its  existence  dozens  of 
factories  were  drawn  to  the  city  by  the  gas  service. 

An  unfair  newspai)cr  in  the  same  city  had  brought 
none. 

Withcmt  ])rovocation  the  newspaper  launched  an 
attack  on  the  corporation. 

People  were  made  to  believe  that  the  gas  supply  was 
failing — although  it  was  as  good  as  ever.  Industrials 
became  panic  stricken ;  customers  commenced  throwing 
heating  appliances  from  their  homes  and  state  and  city 
investigations  were  started. 

Since  that  time  I  have  been  reliably  informed  that 
many  factories  have  abandoned  plans  of  moving  to  this 
city,  believing  the  gas  supi)ly  was  doomed.  The  factories 
had  to  depend  on  gas  service. 

The  city  in  question  is  striving  to  reach  a  high  p()])U- 
lation  mark  by  1920.' 

Do  yf)U  tbink  it  will  ? 

Neither  do  I. 

And  still  the  business  men  of  that  city  have  no  yet 
been  able  to  see  how  this  one  paper  is  damaging  the 


prosperity  and  growth  of  tlicir  city  and  thereby  injuring 
their  business. 

If  the  utility  would  have  gone  to  the  ten  largest  retail 
firms  in  that  city  and  shown  them  the  number  of  fac- 
tories and  people  that  the  newspaper  had  kept  out  of  their 
city  by  its  unfairness,  I  think  they  would  have  changed 
their  opinion  of  this  paper. 


His  Annual  Promise 


THAT'S  jALL  PIGHT; 
IT  WONT  HAPPEN 
A£AII^. 


In  a  large  American  city  last  winter  a  gas  company  ex- 
perienced some  sudden  field  troubles.  About  2,500  customers 
out  of  180,000  had  low  pressure.  "His  Annual  Promise"  is  one 
of  the  many  cartoons  appearing   in  a  newspaper  at  that  time. 


CHAPTER  V 

Fake  Meter  Reader  Thugs 

THE  flimsiest  excuses  are  often  used  to  attack  public 
service  corporations.    Here  is  proof  of  it. 

Not  so  very  long  ago  a  thug  represented  himself 
to  a  woman  in  a  large  city  as  an  electric  meter  reader. 

He  gained  entrance  to  the  home  and  severely  black- 
jacked her  before  ransacking  the  house. 

The  electric  company  was  blameless. 

But  demands  were  made  upon  it  by  a  newspaper  to 
prevent  similar  attacks. 

It  was  purely  a  matter  for  the  police — but  that  made 
no  difference. 

By  clever  handling,  the  story  shortly  assumed  large 
proportions — so  large  in  fact  that  other  newspapers  had 
to  take  notice  of  it. 

The  climax  was  reached,  I  am  reliably  informed,  when 
reporters  from  one  of  the  papers  tied  a  vaudeville  actress 
over  a  piano,  turned  the  flat  topsy-turvey  and  printed  a 
"fake  meter  reader"  story. 

Council  then  took  hold  of  the  matter,  passed  resolu- 
tions, held  public  indignation  meetings  and  the  Electric 
Company  was  called  upon  to  protect  its  customers.  You 
understand,  of  course,  that  the  police  department  was  not 
in  the  business  of  protecting  the  people  from  thugs.  That 
unwarranted  campaign  cost  the  Electric  Company  thou- 
sands of  dollars. 

At   the   public   Council    meeting   numerous    women's 


clubs  were  represented  by  their  officers,  often  publicity 
seekers.  However,  the  president  of  the  largest  club  of 
Jewish  women  refused  the  request  of  the  newspaper  to 
represent  her  club  at  the  meeting.  Consequently  the 
newspaper  secured  a  German  cook  and  Swedish  maid, 
from  a  Jewish  home,  to  represent  the  club  of  Jewish 
women. 

Another  interesting  case  was  that  of  a  telephone  com- 
pany, attacked  because  it  refused  to  take  check  reins  off 
its  horses. 

The  company's  advertising  manager  suggested  a  full 
page  advertisement,  showing  by  a  series  of  pictures  how 
the  aggressive  paper  distributed  its  wares  in  the  down- 
town section. 

He  went  so  far  as  to  secure  the  affidavit  of  a  wagon 
driver  who  stated  that  the  unfair  paper  killed  one  horse  a 
month  by  forcing  its  men  to  constantly  drive  at  break- 
neck speed. 

But  the  advertisement  never  appeared. 

Why? 

If  the  utility  would  have  succumbed  to  Yellow  Back 
attack  with  advertising,  I  doubt  if  it  would  have  had  any 
future  peace  from  similar  ones.  If  a  Yellow  Back  ever 
forces  you  to  go  to  the  people  with  any  defensive  adver- 
tisement it  will  be  a  pretty  good  plan  not  to  run  the  copy 
in  the  Yellow  Back  columns. 

A  somewhat  similar  case  is  that  of  a  street  railway 
company. 

They  paid  scrubwomen  $1.85  per  niglit.  I  am  told 
that  a  "S'ellow  Back  cam])aigned  on  this.  The  paper's 
scrubwomen  received  SI. 35  for  a  twelve  hour  night. 

Another  friend  recently  discontinued  advertising  in  a 
Yellow  Back  when  his  coni])any  was  attacked  because  it 


earned  $1,400,000  last  year  on  an  investment  of  al)out 
$32,000,000. 

Here  is  part  of  the  letter  I  received  from  him  today. 

"I  have  dared  to  defy  The  *  *  *  j  have  refused 
to  spend  money  supporting  it.  Yesterday  I  received  final 
notice  to  resume  advertising.  I  refused.  Today  I  am 
attacked — I  am  ridiculed — I  am  the  victim  of  public  ire, 
and  distrust — unjustly  aroused  by  false  attacks  and  false 
statements  of  the  paper." 

The  Serpent  had  struck.     It  evidently  hit  him  in  a 
vital  spot. 


o 


CHAPTER  VI 
Absurd  Charges 

NE  of  the  largest  daily  papers  in  America  recently 
printed  an  inference  that  air  was  being  mixed  with 
the  gas  sold  in  that  city. 


If  there  is  any  one  thing  that  is  absurd,  it  is  the 
charge  of  filling  the  pipe  lines  witii  air  and  gas. 

First,  it  is  a  chemical  impossibility.  Air  and  gas  will 
not  mix.  By  constant  stirring  one  can  get  a  fair  mix- 
ture of  oil  and  water.    But  not  so  with  gas  and  air. 

But  suppose  gas  and  air  would  mix.  Immediately  you 
would  have  an  explosive  element.  Some  bright  sunshiny 
day  a  little  pebble  rippling  along  in  a  pipe  line  would 
bump  too  hard  against  a  joint,  cause  a  spark  and — Bang! 
Up  in  the  air  would  go  your  pipe  line,  and  most  of  your 
city. 

Even  granting  that  gas  and  air  could  be  mixed  and 
safely  transported,  it  could  not  be  done  by  merely  press- 
ing a  button.  There  would  have  to  be  some  place  to 
force  air  into  the  lines. 

This  place  could  not  be  concealed.  Air  pumps  cannot 
operate  alone.  Machinery  is  Ijrainlcss.  Some  person 
would  have  to  operate  the  pumps. 

If  I  wanted  to  get  rich  quick  and  did  not  care  how  I 
accomplished  it,  nothing  would  please  me  any  more  than 
to  be  made  the  confidant  of  some  public  service  corpora- 
tion, foolish  enough  lo  try  and  be  crooked. 


Do  you  think  tiiat  any  newspaper  would  dare  infer 
that  air  and  gas  were  being  mixed  in  the  pipe  Hnes,  if  the 
people  knew  that  it  was  an  impossibility? 

The  newspaper  would  not  dare  to  make  such  a  fool 
of  itself. 

Then,  are  you  not  to  blame  for  such  statements  when 
you  let  them  pass  unchallenged  ?  Are  you  not  at  fault  for 
not  using  ordinary  intelligence  in  anticipating  such  state- 
ments and  thwarting  them  with  advertisements  similar  to 
this  :— 


AN  ABSURD  IDEA 

//  is  a  Chemical  Impossibility 
to  Mix  Air  and  Gas 

Natural  Gas  is  40  Per  Cent 
Lighter  Than  Air 

This  one  statement  should  forever  blot 
from  your  mind  the  absurd  notion  that  air 
and  gas  can  be  mixed. 

The  activity  of  jokesmiths  has  led  many 
persons  to  believe  that  air  and  gas  will  mix. 

The  fact  that  only  jokesmiths  make  such 
statements  should  be  positive  proof  of  the 
foolishness  of  the  statements. 


Be  a  Builder! 


Builder*  m&k«  PrMpcnty. 

HoBOt  P«opl«  rmIcc  Pro*p«rilv- 

Moaey  nukci  Prd«perilr 

And  Prosperity  ii  «  pkved  road  to  Cn 

Th«l  u  why  il  p*y«  lo  b«  •  Builder. 


Fml  ftid  to  >iiild«n  U  beinf  fivcn  *t  AacricA 
rtf«l  Compute  BwMiBc  Show,  now  tKini  hel 
IB  tW  Wicmore  Colbeum. 


I  UacLm  bow  lo  ksild — how  lo  b«  ■  Build<-i 


With    oi:u-r  ti-iiilvdls.    ni-    ;)r«-    pruud    nf     the 
SIxm.  pmuil  ••(  the  UuilJtrrs  rl.-^^onMblc  Icr  ii. 


3w  prido  ■■  ftlkarvd  by  i,000  HormI  ood  uotbI 

iM.n    ^<1...    !•    I:,    n.rn.^li   w.ti    «nih    -.i.    I  ln.ip. 
«•!  and  tool  Oa*  Scrvic*  in  A»«r'MO. 


And  wi  kfkow  tkol  you.  too.  will  b«  proud  of  lk» 
d«ra  lh«r«. 


the  .^ibiU  pHjiukf 


r  Thmk.ni  and  Talk. ok  '  Bu.ld 


.  lM>in*  .■  CafortabU.  »o  hom*  i*  Con<'«i.«n1.' 
horn*  (•  CempUto  «nUoul  Ample  prooiMO 
-  Oa*  L>f»>lmf.  Cookini   .r.d   Heai.ni   5«r*Kr 

ir  •■p*r1a  will  advu«  yow  Fr*«  how  lo  provide 
r  the  Gu  5«r*K«  row  w.nl  and  ».ll  n»«d  m 
.   fMw   hotn*   rou   d*c^«   upon      whMher   ■)   U 


'  .h 


TAKE  ADVANTAGE  OF 
CURRENT  EVENTS 

If  you  are  a  wide-awake 
advertiser  you  will  take 
advantage  of  current 
events  to  make  your  copy 
more  valuable  and  inter- 
esting. 

F«r  instance,  there  was 
a  mammoth  building  show 
in  a  large  American  city 
last  winter.  Through  ex- 
tensive advertising  and 
publicity  the  managers  of 
the  show  had  interested 
thousands  of  people. 

A  gas  company  seized 
this  opportunity  for  some 
vahiable  advertising.  The 
company  had  been  severe- 
ly and  unfairly  criticized 
)ust  before  the  show.  The 
line  "BE  A  BUILDER" 
on  the  accompanying  ad- 
vertisement is  much 
stronger  than  if  the  com- 
pany had  said  "DO  NOT 
BE  A   KNOCKER. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Yellow  Backs  Play  Safe 

The  safest  and  favorite  way  pursued  by  Yellow  Backs 
in  attacking  public  service  corporations  is  through  ward 
heeling,  peanut  cracking,  black-leg,  nondescript  politicians. 

Practically  every  large  city — and  many  smaller  ones — 
have  several  men  in  public  office  who  make  a  stab  for 
popularity  by  attacks  on  public  service  corporations. 

They  believe  that  every  assault  is  one  more  brick  in 
their  paved  road  to  re-election.  They  are  the  tools  of  the 
Yellow  Backs. 

Here  is  the  way  the  counterfeit  public  official  and  the 
Yellow  Back  usually  work  together : 

The  Yellow  Back  reporter  abhors  public  service  cor- 
porations. Pie  dislikes  them  because  he  is  taught  to  and 
because  it  pays  him  to  do  so.  He  can  usually  get  by  the 
city  editor  with  a  story  rapping  a  corporation.  To  laud 
would  be  flirting  with  discharge. 

Imagine  a  Yellow  Back  reporter  sitting  in  his  dingy 
city  hall  office  reading  the  morning  paper.  What  is  this 
he  sees?  The  Infallible  Gas  Company  is  building  a  new 
$300,000  pumping  station. 

Clip,  clip,  go  the  shears.  Straight  to  a  publicity  seek- 
ing official  he  goes.  He  finds  him  in  his  office  next  door 
to  the  city  chemist's  laboratory. 

"Did  you  see  this?"  he  asks,  as  he  hands  the  official 
the  clipping. 


"Yeh,  yeh,  ain't  that  awful?"  the  official  answers,  who 
has  not  seen  the  story. 

"S'pose  it's  to  pump  more  air  into  the  gas?"  the  re- 
porter inquires. 

"I  s'pose  so,"  answers  the  official,  as  he  reads  the  clip- 
ping. 

"Whatcha  gonna  do  about  it?"  the  reporter  asks. 

"You  just  watch  me,"  the  official  answers.  "I  am  just 
waiting  for  the  next  board  meeting  to  introduce  a  resolu- 
tion asking  for  an  investigation,  to  learn  whether  or  not 
those  pumps  are  to  be  used  to  force  more  air  into  the  gas." 

Here  is  your  story.  It  will  carry  startling  headlines 
and  will  commence  something  like  this : 

Council  will  be  asked  Wednesday 
night  to  investigate  the  purpose  of  The 
Infallible  Gas  Company  in  purchasing 
a  battery  of  new  pumps.  Alderman 
Fool  will  introduce  the  resolution. 

"There  is  a  growing  opinion  that  the 
Gas  Company  is  mixing  larger  quanti- 
ties of  air  with  the  gas  than  usual,"  said 
Alderman  Fool.  "The  time  is  here  for 
the  Board  to  do  something,  and  not 
after  the  people  have  been  forced  to 
pay  for  a  lot  of  excess  air." 

For  probably  a  half  column  the  reporter  will  ramble. 
The  people  will  read  every  word  of  it  and  will  believe  it. 

If  the  reporter  and  official  would  have  stepped  through 
the  door  into  the  chemical  laboratory,  the  chemist  would 
have  told  them  that  a  daily  analysis  of  the  gas  showed  it 
to  be  free  from  air  and  several  hundred  heat  imits  richer 
in  quality  than  required  by  ordinance. 


The  Gas  Company  usually  ignores  such  charges.  It 
seldom  gets  an  opportunity  to  refute  them  and  probably 
would  not  dare  to  if  given  a  chance. 


Once  in  awhile  there  is  humor  in  such  attacks,  as  wit- 
ness the  case  of  a  rising  young  politician  who  occupied  a 
very  important  position  in  a  city  where  I  once  worked  on 
a  newspaper.  He  was  intelligent  and  well  educated,  but 
had  an  insatiable  egoism. 

His  favorite  method  of  satisfying  his  excessive  love 
for  himself  was  by  seeing  his  name  in  the  newspapers. 
To  be  able  to  do  this  he  was  constantly  assailing  public 
service  corporations.  He  never  failed  a  chance  to  capital- 
ize the  rather  general  distrust  and  dislike  of  corporations, 
due  to  unfair  attacks,  and  he  was  a  wizard  at  creating  op- 
portunities to  attack. 

In  his  scramble  for  cheap  publicity  he  apparently 
would  say  or  do  anything  a  reporter  asked  him  to  do. 
Finally  his  foot  slipped.  He  made  a  fool  of  himself. 
This  is  the  way  he  did  it. 

Several  schools  were  closed  one  Zero  Day  because  it 
was  impossible  to  heat  them.  A  newspaper  carried  a 
front  page  story  with  big  headlines. 

"Mr.  So-and-So  is  going  to  start  an  immediate 
investigation  to  see  why  the  pressure  of  gas  is  so  low  the 
schools  cannot  be  heated,"  the  story  commenced,  to  the 
best  of  my  recollection.  The  man  was  given  a  half 
column  in  which  to  air  his  views. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  page  another  scare  head 
carried  a  gas  explosion  story. 


"Mr.  So-and-So  is  going  to  start  an  immediate 
investigation  to  see  why  the  pressure  of  gas  is  too  high," 
the  story  commenced,  as  I  remember  it.  "He  beheves 
that  the  explosion  which  snulTcd  out  several  lives  this 
morning  was  due  to  high  gas  pressure." 

Can  you  beat  it  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Charitable  Ogranizaiwns  Unfair 

EVEN  some  charitable  organizations  make  common 
prey  of  public  utilities. 

They  do  it  despite  the  fact  that  corporations  are 
the  most  cheerful  and  most  benevolent  of  all  donors  to 
charity. 

I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  gas  or  electric  company  in 
America  that  does  not  carry  accounts  on  their  books  for 
months,  at  the  request  of  charitable  institutions. 

Still,  these  same  corporations  are  often  used  as  a  crow- 
bar by  charity  organizations  to  pry  money  from  the  public. 

It  is  done  in  the  most  abominable  way.  Press  agents 
for  charitable  bodies  are  largely  responsible. 

Such  a  press  agent  recently  took  a  story  to  the  city 
editor  of  a  large  American  daily.  There  was  a  tear  in 
every  line  of  the  yarn.     This  is  the  lead : 

"Mary  ,  sixteen,  slowly  counted 

her  pennies. 

"Only  69  and  the  light  bill  was  $1.80. 

"As  she  reviewed  her  sad  plight  there 
came  a  pounding  on  the  door. 

"It  was  the  light  collector. 

"Mary  could  only  beg  him  not  to  turn 
off  the  light. 

"The  69  pennies  must  buy  bread  for 
her  three  brothers  and  two  sisters.  It 
could  not  be  used  to  pay  light  bills. 


"Mary's  father  died  two  years  ago. 
Her  mother  disappeared  last  week.  She 
is  trying  to  keep  the  little  brood  to- 
gether, hoping  that  mother  will  return. 

"There  are  hundreds  of  other  cases 

similar    to    this     tliat    need    immediate 
help." 

The  charitable  organization  then  made  an  appeal  for 
money. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Mary's  account  was  40  cents;  her 
bill  was  not  yet  due  and  at  the  light  company's  office  there 
was  a  deposit  of  $5.00  that  Mary's  father  had  placed  there 
long  before  his  death,  as  security  for  light  bills. 

When  the  above  story  was  written  the  light  company 
was  carrying  $20,000  in  back  accounts  at  the  request  of 
the  charity  organization. 


Clean  Up  and  Keep 
Clean- With  Gas 

You  can  help  to  dean  up  Your  City  and 
keep  it  clean — by  using  electricity. 

Electric  Service  doesn't  have  to  be  hauled; 
it  doesn't  have  to  be  handled. 

It  doesn't  submit  you — or  the  city — to  an 
endless  task  of  cleaning  and  sweeping. 

No  dust,  no  dirt,  no  soot. 

Electric  service  never  soils  your  rugs  or 
curtains ;  it  never  dirties  houses  or 
streets. 

It's  the  cleanest  light — and  it's  also  the  most 
economical. 

Clean  up — and  keep  clean — with  Electric 
Service. 

News,  April  19. 


CLEAN-UP    WEEK    POSSIBILITIES 

Once  each  spring  in  nearly  every  American  city  there  is  observed  a 
"Clean-Up"  week. 

Usually   the  mayor  of   the   city  issues  a   "Clean-Up"   proclamation. 

It  offers  a  wonderful  opportunity  for  all  kinds  of  public  utilities  to 
print  combination  good-will  and  sales  copy  advertisement,  as  shown  above 
and  on   the   opposite  page. 

In  case  there  is  no  "Clean-U p"  week  in  your  city  at  present,  why  do 
you  not  promote  such  a  week? 

It   would  more   than   pay  you   in  good-will   and  increased   business. 


Li 


mmm^ 


Don't  Sweep,  Scrub 
Dust  and  Drudge! 


Some  folks  Sweep,  Scrub,  Dust  and  Drudge 
to  Keep  Clean. 

Others  keep  their  homes  Clean  and  Com- 
fortable   with    Gas    Service — which    is    as 
Cheap  or  Cheaper  than  other  fuels. 
Gas    Heating    Installations    may   be   made 
now — under  our  easy  payment  plan. 
Enjoy  its  Cleanliness  and  Comfort  during 
chill  spring  and  be  prepared  next  Fall. 
Call  or  write  now  for  full  information. 


NAME  OF  (^.AS  COMPANY 


9MQ(K^J-nQ 


CHAPTER  IX 

Benefits  Derived  from  Unfair  Stories 

JUST  what  benefits  accrue  from  such  stories?     Here 
are  some : 
They  keep  good  people  away  from  a  city. 

They  prevent  an  harmonious  relation  between  a  cor- 
poration and  the  public. 

They  foment  hatred  and  spitefulness — negative  fancies 
that  promote  discontent. 

They  blacken  the  name  of  a  city,  and — 

They  keep  capital  and  builders  out  of  a  city — out  of  a 
state. 

And  much  of  the  fault  for  these  attacks  lie  with  pub- 
lic service  corporations — and  those  public  service  men 
who  have  not  had  the  time  or  inclination  to  give  these  mat- 
ters the  thought  and  attention  they  deserve. 

In  days  gone  by  nearly  every  public  service  corpora- 
tion looked  upon  its  advertising  department  as  a  necessary 
evil — so  I  am  told.     Many  of  them  still  view  it  that  way. 

Others  believe  that  any  person  can  write  advertise- 
ments. 

The  average  corporation  did  little  advertising  except 
when  assailed.  Then  the  money  was  thrown  to  the  winds 
in  page  and  half  page  advertisements. 

Briefly,  the  public  service  corporations  considered  their 
advertising  appropriation  as  a  big  bone  to  throw  to  hungry 
dogs — (the  newspapers) — to  keep  them  from  sinking 
their  yellow  fangs  too  deep  in  the  corporation  leg. 


Unscrupulous  newspapers,  always  hungry,  were  quick 
to  capitalize  this  misdirected  expenditure  of  advertising 
money  and  attacks  became  more  frequent  and  were  made 
on  the  flimsiest  excuse. 

The  public  service  corporations  had  placed  the  cart 
before  the  horse  and  they  were  paying  a  fancy  price. 

They  were  giving  advertising  to  Yellow  Back  news- 
papers to  get  a  square  deal  instead  of  going  to  the  people 
with  honest  appeal  advertising  in  newspapers  that  were 
giving  them  a  square  deal. 

It  was  a  case  of  the  paper  that  attacked  hardest  and 
oftenest  being  given  the  largest  amount  of  advertising. 

But  conditions  have  rapidly  improved  and  will  con- 
tinue to  improve. 

Public  utilities  must  lose  their  fear  of  Yellow  Backs. 

They  must  realize  the  value  of  steady  year-in-and- 
year-out  advertising  in  honest,  constructive,  sane  news- 
papers. 

They  must  appreciate  the  vast  power  of  "reason  why" 
advertising  copy.  And  they  nuist  understand  that  the 
oftener  this  copy  is  run  the  better. 

When  the  corporations  come  to  a  full  realization  of 
the  value  of  advertising  and  the  advisability  of  going 
straight  to  the  public  with  their  problems  and  openly  ask- 
ing for  co-operation,  then  I  believe  they  can  safely  sit 
back  and  laugh  at  the  Yellow  Backs. 

A  good  beginning  would  be  a  mammoth  national 
propaganda  to  erase  the  many  fallacious  beliefs  planted 
by  Yellow  Backs,  that  gas  companies  mix  air  with  gas; 
that  street  railway  companies  do  not  care  how  many  chil- 


dren  they  kill ;  that  railroads  do  nothing  but  water  stock, 
and  that  light  meters  are  little  devils  marking  up  twice 
the  amount  of  electricity  used,  etc. 


Please  do  not  think  that  public  service  corporations 
v/ant  to  run  the  newspapers. 

They  have  better  sense. 

And  do  not  charge  them  with  wanting  to  muzzle  the 
newspapers  and  stop  them  from  printing  news. 

They  have  better  sense. 

If  they  neglect  their  service,  if  they  turn  crooked,  if 
they  do  anything  to  hinder  service,  to  injure  the  people, 
the  sooner  and  harder  they  are  attacked  the  better  for 
them  and  for  all  of  us. 

Their  very  existence  depends  on  their  square  dealing 
in  all  things.  There  are  too  many  eyes  focused  on  them 
to  make  it  safe  to  resort  to  dishonest  business  methods — 
such  as  Yellow  Backs  employ. 

From  the  minute  a  man  enters  the  service  of  a  utility 
he  is  taught  to  walk  on  top  of  the  table  and  spread  a  little 
sand  around  to  keep  from  slipping. 

He  WANTS  to  be  square.    He  MUST  be  square. 

And  he  has  the  right  to  demand  square  treatment  in 
return. 

He  does  not  want  the  deal  he  is  now  getting. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Biggest  Goat  of  All 

MAYBE  you  think  I  am  a  wealthy  man,  with  invest- 
ments in  pubHc  utiHties.     I  am  not.     I  haven't  a 
cent  invested  any  place  and  for  all  I  know  my 
check  account  may  be  overdrawn  this  minute.    If  it  isn't 
it  would  not  take  a  very  big  check  to  deplete  what  there 
is  in  the  bank. 

But  if  I  did  have  money  and  was  looking  for  an  in- 
vestment the  last  thing  on  God's  dirt  that  would  attract 
me  would  be  the  average  public  utility.  And  especially 
an  illuminating  company  investment. 

Of  all  the  utilities  serving  the  public,  electric  com- 
panies right  now  are  getting  the  most  unfair  treatment  of 
all.  For  several  years  I  had  an  opportunity  to  observe 
one  of  the  most  dastardly  attacks  on  an  illuminating  co;n- 
pany  that  was  ever  perpetrated.  To  some  extent  T  took 
part  in  it. 

The  object  of  the  attack  was  to  sell  the  people  a 
several  million  dollar  bond  issue  to  install  a  municipal  light 
plant. 

As  usual  the  attack  was  lead  by  a  newspaper.  Tt 
fooled  the  people  very  easily.  But  in  fairness  to  the  pub- 
lic I  know  that  right  now  they  are  questioning  the  veracity 
of  this  paper.  They  are  commencing  to  realize  that  some- 
one has  fooled  them.  And  there  is  a  changing  sentiment 
toward  the  electric  cf)mi)any — sort  of  a  confidence,  as  it 
were. 

Jn  this  case  as  in  most  attacks  on  illuminating  co:n- 
panics  the  hue  and  cry  of  the  newspapers  has  been  "exces- 


sive  rates  and  watered  stocks."  It  has  printed  columns  of 
copy  about  "big  dividends,"  "watered  stock,"  etc. 

This  particular  angle  is  usually  the  key  to  an  entire 
campaign  to  destroy  a  public  utility  company. 

Utility  men  deny  the  charges  until  they  are  black  and 
blue  in  the  face — among  themselves. 

They  will  tell  each  other  how  the  public  utilities  com- 
mission investigated  their  company,  their  books  and  all 
that  they  possess  and  how  it  was  proven  that  they  were 
only  earning  7  per  cent  on  their  investment. 

But  the  newspaper  goes  on  alleging  that  the  company 
is  paying  usurious  interest  on  their  investment. 

And  the  utility  men  will  again  commence  denying  and 
making  counter  allegations — among  themselves. 

Meanwhile  the  public  goes  on  reading  about  "watered 
stock"  and  "big  interest"  and  the  public  service  corpora- 
tion men  remain  deaf,  dumb  and  stone  blind — except  when 
among  themselves. 

For  the  life  of  me  I  cannot  see  what  they  are  afraid  of. 
I  can't  see  why  they  should  be  afraid  to  tell  the  public  the 
truth  if  they  are  right.  They  surely  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  the  unfair  newspaper.  And  while  they  are  telling  the 
public  the  truth  they  might  make  a  comparison  between 
their  investment  and  the  particular  investment  of  the  un- 
fair newspaper.  And  they  might  also  show  the  interest 
th?.t  each  makes.  In  most  instances  the  comparison 
would  be  mighty  odious  to  the  newspaper.  They  must 
stop  yielding  to  their  better  judgment  and  becoming  pup- 
pets of  Yellow  Backs  by  allowing  money  to  be  extorted 
from  them. 

Public  utilities  know  these  habits  of  Yellow  Backs. 
And  still  they  go  blindly  ahead  paying  no  heed  to  what 
the  future  holds.     The  newspaper  keeps  pounding  away 


until  there  is  suddenly  born  some  day  a  general  hatred  and 
distrust  of  the  utility. 

Comes  now  a  bright  politician  on  the  scene.  He  is 
seeking  an  important  political  office.  Possibly  he  wants 
to  be  mayor.  He  immediately  seizes  upon  this  hatred, 
capitalizes  it  and  rides  into  office  on  a  Public  Ownership 
platform. 

Blame  no  one  but  the  utility.  It  did  not  believe  in 
advertising  or  publicity.  It  tried  in  no  way  to  get  the 
friendship  of  its  patrons  and  scoffed  at  public  confidences 

I  am  reprinting  on  the  following  pages  two  advertise- 
ments recently  printed  in  the  dailies  of  a  large  American 
city.  By  reading  it  you  can  see  how  some  public  utilities 
are  anticipating  problems  of  the  future  and  forestalling 
unfair  attacks  and  criticisms. 


$119,000,000    Annually 
Is  Paid  Out  In  Wages 

to  an  army  of  150,000  employees  of  the  New 
York  Central  Lines.  The  buying  power  of 
these  employees  contributes  in  a  large  part 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  served  by  the 


New  York  Central  R.  R. 

"The  Wttttr-Levet  Roult" 

But  affecting  such  prosperity  in  even  a  greater 
measure  than  this  vast  disbursement  for  wages, 
together  with  other  great  sums  for  taxes  and 
supplies,  is  the  maintenance  of  the  high 
standard  of  transportation  service  necessary  to 
such  growing  communities  as  these  lines  serve. 

That  standard  can  be  maintained  only  when  there  it 
a  proper  relation  between  earnings 
and  expenses.  In  the  correct  solu- 
tion of  this  problem  the  public  and 
the  railroads  have  a  mutual  interest 
—the  prosperity  of  both  is  at  stake. 


f.  NEW  YORK  , 


LINES 


The  picture  alone  in  the  above  advertisement  tells  a  big  story 
and  incites  the  imagination  to  action.  It  is  valuable  good-will 
copy. 


Profit  and  Loss  in  Gas  Service 

You  are  a  patron  of  Gas  Service. 

But  do  you  know  whether  or  not  you  are  paying  the  Gas 
Company  a  fair  profit  for  the  comforts  and  conven- 
iences you  enjoy? 

This  may  sound  strange,  but  during  the  month  of  June 
123,474  local  families  did  not  pay  for  the  cost  of  fur- 
nishing them  with  gas. 

18,671  families  just  about  paid  for  the  cost  of  their  service. 

51,286  families  paid  a  reasonable  profit,  partially  helping  to 
overcome  the  mammoth  deficit  on  the  123,474  families. 

The  gas  consumption  in  this  city  during  June  is  shown  in 
this  table  :— 

11,000  families  used  less  than  100  cubic  feet  of  gas. 
19,536  families  used  1.000  feet  or  less. 
32.876  families  used  2,000  feet  or  less. 
33.584  families  used  3,000  feet  or  less. 
26,470  families  used  4,000  feet  or  less. 
123,474  families  used  less  than  4,000  feet  of  gas. 

Each  one  of  the  123.474  families  listed  above  secured  their 
gas  service  at  a  loss  to  the  Gas  Company. 

Here  is  the  explanation  : 

It  costs  60  cents  each  month  to  serve  each  gas 
customer  before  a  foot  of  gas  is  used.  This  is 
called  overhead.  It  includes  office  rent,  clerk  hire, 
meter  reading,  taxes,  stationery,  postage,  printing, 
collecting,  free  service,  etc. — in  fact  every  cost 
connected  with  securing,  transporting  and  deliver- 
ing natural  gas.  It  does  not  include  interest  on 
an  investment  exceeding  $50,000.00,  or  the  price  we 
must  pay  for  gas. 

Each  1,000  feet  of  gas  purchased  at  the  Ohio  River  now 
costs  us  15  cents — next  year  it  will  cost  17' j  cents. 

.'Kdd  60  cents  overhead  to  the  present  15-cent  price  and  you 
get  75  cents,  the  actual  cost  of  furnishing  you  the  first 
thousand  feet  of  gas  you  use.  You  pay  v30  cents  for  it. 
It  costs  90  cents  to  furnish  you  2,000  feet  and  you 

pay  60  cents. 
It  costs  $1.05  to   furnish  you   3,00<l   feet   and   you 

pay  90  cents. 
It   costs  $1.20  to   furnish   vou   4  000   feet   and   vou 
pay  $1.20. 

During  the  month  of  June,  51.286  local  families  used  from 
six  to  thirty  thousand  cubic  feet  of  gas.  helping  to  meet 
the  mammoth  deficit  on  our  other  customers. 

The  above  statement  is  made  to  enlighten  you  concerning 

the  conduct  of  a  business  that  is  often   misunderstood  by 

well  meaning  ])eopK-. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Meeting  Yellow  Back  Oppression  With  Advertising 

IN  one  large  American  city  right  now  the  illuminating 
company  is  on  its  knees  begging  for  permission  to 
make  7^  per  cent  on  its  investment.     Its  pleas  are 
heard  in  every  corner  of  the  country. 

An  unfair  newspaper  placed  it  there  in  the  dust  with 
the  old  stereotyped  charges  of  watered  stock,  big  earn- 
ings, etc.  And  that  newspaper  has  been  earning  5  per 
cent  a  month  net  or  60  per  cent  a  year  on  its  investment 
and  has  retired  all  its  bonds. 

If  any  person,  any  place,  can  give  me  one  good  reason 
why  the  illuminating  company  attacked  should  not  have 
printed  the  facts  regarding  its  investments  and  earnings, 
I'll  drop  advertising  and  publicity  work  tomorrow  and  go 
into  the  junk  business.  In  running  such  an  advertisement 
I  would  even  be  tempted  to  print  a  co  mparison  between 
the  investments  and  earnings  of  the  utilit}^  and  newspaper. 
Also  the  taxes  paid  by  each. 

Such  an  advertisement,  properly  presented,  would 
have  placed  the  newspaper  on  the  defensive  so  quickly  that 
it  never  would  have  dared  to  mention  "watered  stock"  and 
"high  interest"  again.  If  it  did,  the  advertisement  could 
have  been  repeated. 

Such  papers  have  absolutely  no  sense  of  justice.  They 
ignore  entirely  the  fact  that  a  utility  cannot  place  a  val- 
uation on  its  own  service  and  sell  it  for  what  it  is  worth — 
like  the  merchant  does. 


They  do  not  give  two  whoops  this  side  of  Perdition 
about  the  tremendous  hazard  involved  in  the  operation  of 
an  electric  plant  or  any  other  utility.  It  does  not  concern 
them  that  the  heavy  degree  of  depreciation  and  obsoles- 
cence in  an  illuminating  company  plant  is  alone  almost  as 
dangerous  as  the  overhanging  clouds  of  municipal  owner- 
ship. Neither  do  they  consider  damages  from  accident, 
fire,  flood  and  storm. 

All  they  do  think  about  is  trying  to  appear  as  a  friend 
of  the  people  by  putting  out  of  business  a  corporation  not 
overly  popular  with  the  people,  and  they  don't  care  how 
they  do  it. 

In  supporting  a  bond  issue  for  erection  of  a  municipal 
lighting  plant  I  am  reliably  told  that  this  paper  made  67 
distinct  libelous  statements  against  the  utility — every  one 
an  ignoble,  filthy  lie.  And  in  most  cases  the  newspaper 
was  apprised  of  the  truth  before  publication  of  the  stories. 

And  the  kind,  complaisant  utility,  with  nothing  at 
stake  but  its  plant  and  an  investment  of  millions  of  dol- 
lars, permitted  the  newspaper  to  continue.  What  did  it 
care  with  a  little  thing  like  its  plant  and  investment  at 
stake. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Meeting  Oppression  With  Anger 

IN  direct  contrast  to  the  silent  utility  is  the  one  which 
is  constantly  rushing  into  print  and  making  a  scrap  out 
of  anything  and  everything  said  about  it.  The  utility 
means  all  right,  but  does  not  seem  to  know  just  what  to 
say,  how  to  say  it,  or  when  to  say  it.  It  thinks  that  the 
newspaper  has  said  something  nasty  about  it  and 
that  it  should  immediately  try  to  convince  the  public 
differently.  Usually  it  only  succeeds  in  increasing  the 
value  of  the  newspaper  stories  about  a  thousandfold. 

Listen !    This  is  important.    Study  these  words : 

A  man  cannot  shadow  box  all  night.  Even  though  he 
could  an  audience  would  not  sit  all  night  and  watch  him. 
But  if  someone  would  step  into  the  ring  with  him  the 
audience  would  stay  until  doomsday. 

Now  if  that  man  who  jumps  into  the  ring  is  placed  on 
the  defensive  the  audience  will  be  against  him.  But  if  he 
places  his  adversary  on  the  defensive  the  audience  will  be 
with  him.  Now  then,  here  is  your  unfair  newspaper 
shadow  boxing.  You  rush  into  the  ring  without  training 
or  preparation.  He  is  an  adept — you  are  a  novice.  Good 
night !     You  will  take  the  count  sure. 

Keep  out  of  all  scraps  where  you  will  be  placed  on  the 
defensive.     Keep  silent  if  you  cannot  lead  the  fight. 

If  I  were  a  public  service  company  and  attacked  by  a 
newspaper  trying  to  further  its  own  ends  by  promoting 
a  bond  issue  and  municipal  ownership,  this  is  what  I 
would   do. 


First,  I  would  go  to  the  editor.  I  would  try  to  con- 
vince him  of  his  wrong.  Failing  in  this  I  would  serve 
notice  that  he  would  either  tell  the  strict  truth  or  prepare 
for  the  worst  licking  he  ever  received. 

And  I  would  stick  to  my  word.  I  would  force  him  to 
tell  the  truth  or  know  the  reason  why. 


Remember  now,  I  would  try  every  way  to  avert  a 
fight.  But  when  the  clash  did  come  I  would  refuse  to 
see  or  talk  with  a  reporter  from  the  Yellow  Back  paper. 
If  I  did,  I  would  make  it  a  point  to  have  a  stenographer 
to  take  down  every  word  uttered. 

So  far  as  newspaper  advertising  is  concerned  I  would 
run  constructive  copy  in  all  papers  except  the  Yellow 
Back.  I  would  tell  how  much  money  I  had  invested; 
the  number  of  persons  in  my  employ  and  the  number  of 
children,  widows  and  mothers  supported  by  them.  T 
would  also  run  pictures  of  the  oldest  employees  and  all 
human  interest  copy  of  a  similar  nature  that  I  could  dis- 
cover. I  would  not  publicly  refer  to  the  bond  issue  in  any 
way  whatsoever  until  the  day  before  election.  Then  I 
would  make  my  bow  in  the  evening  papers  with  a  full 
page,  two  page  or  dozen  page  advertisement.  T  would 
explain  my  business,  tell  my  problems  and  make  my  ap- 
peal.    And  I  would  conclude  something  like  this : 

"For  the  past  six  months  The  Bugle  has  been  waging 
a  campaign  for  a  l)ond  issue  of  $7,000,000  to  erect  a 
municipal  light  i)lant. 

"Tt  has  made  67  libelous  statements  in  trying  to  con- 
vince you  of  the  necessity  for  a  municipal  plant.  Tn  most 
of  these  cases  it  knew  the  truth  before  publishing  the 
statements. 


"For  the  past  24  years  we  have  tried  to  serve  you 
faithfully  and  honestly.  We  have  earned  a  fair  interest 
on  our  investment. 

"For  the  municipality  and  ourselves  to  be  in  competi- 
tion will  be  ruinous  to  both. 

"We  have  a  plant  costing  $32,000,000. 

"It  is  probably  the  best  equipped  and  best  operated 
in  America. 

"If  you  believe  that  your  city  will  save  money  or  make 
money  by  operating  its  own  plant  you  will  act  accord- 
ingly. 

"We  do  not  think  it  can.  We  base  our  contention  on 
our  experience  and  the  showing  of  municipally  owned 
illuminating  plants  in  hundreds  of  cities  throughout  the 
United  States. 

"If  you  really  believe  you  want  your  own  light  plant, 
that  you  want  to  add  $7,000,000  to  your  total 
municipal  debt  of  $67,000,000,  that  it  will  be  properly 
maintained  and  will  not  become  a  political  football,  we 
will  save  you  money  by  selling  you  our  plant  for  its  true 
appraised  value,  plus  10  per  cent. 

"We  know  there  is  not  room  for  two  electric  light 
plants  whose  rates  are  as  low  as  ours,  and  we  are  per- 
fectly willing  to  sell  out  at  an  honest  price." 

I'll  bet  the  reply  of  the  people  to  such  an  advertise- 
ment would  be  overwhelming  defeat  of  the  proposed  bond 
issue. 

Now  remember,  in  writing  this  I  am  taking  it  for 
granted  that  you  belong  to  the  majority  of  utilities  that 
are  not  earning  a  fair  per  cent  on  their  investment. 

If  you  are  earning  60  per  cent  like  the  Yellow  Back 


described,  then  it  would  be  foolish  to  riiake  such  an  offer. 
It  might  be  accepted. 

I  do  not  know  that  such  tactics  have  ever  been  em- 
ployed. I  know  of  no  precedent  to  say  they  are  right  or 
wrong.  But  it  sounds  like  horse  sense  to  me.  Maybe 
you  disagree.  If  so,  you  may  be  right  and  I  may  be 
wrong.     But  I  would  stake  my  life  on  such  procedure. 

The  newspapers,  of  course,  have  a  very  unfair  ad- 
vantage in  such  crusades.  They  have  to  pay  nothing  for 
their  space.  Their  advertisers  pay  their  way.  But  the 
utility  has  to  buy  its  space  and  it  usually  has  to  buy  in 
every  paper  in  town,  and  in  large  enough  space  to  be 
seen  and  heard. 

Then,  too,  the  newspapers  employ  trained  men — 
trained  in  the  art  of  effective  publicity.  They  know  just 
v.hat  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  They  know  just  what  to 
say  and  when  to  say  it. 

There  is  something  mysterious  about  the  newspaper 
profession — something  which  is  baffling  to  most  corpora- 
tion men.  That  is  the  reason  w-hy  it  pays  to  have  a  man 
at  your  clliow  wlio  knows  something  about  newspaper, 
publicity  and  advertising  work.  But  when  you  get  one, 
I>e  sure  that  he  knows  his  business — that  he  is  not  merely 
a  cub  with  little  or  no  experience.  And  then  do  not  tr}' 
to  keep  information  from  him.  If  he  docs  not  know  your 
exact  condition  and  ])roblems,  how  in  Heaven's  name  can 
you  expect  him  to  know  what  to  say? 

Most  public  service  men  tliink  a  iniblicist  is  some  sort 
or  a  fairy  person  with  enchanting  words  who  can  write 
spellbinding  copy  about  nothing.  He  isn't.  He  is  merely 
a  specialist,  a  student  of  humanity  no  doubt  and  no  more 
al)le  to  perform  miracles  than  you  arc.  lie  is  a  senti- 
ment engineer  and  if  wise  will  go  about  building  a  bridge 


of  sentiment  between  your  ofifice  and  your  customers' 
homes,  the  same  way  that  a  different  kind  of  engineer 
would  go  about  building  a  bridge  across  the  Mississippi. 
But  you  must  tell  him  your  exact  condition  and  what  you 
want  to  accomplish.  You  must  give  him  the  tools  and 
materials  with  which  to  work. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Dawn  of  a  Nexv  Day 

SEVERAL  men  and  several  publications  in  America 
are  doing  a  wonderful  work  right  at  the  present 
time,  in  educating  public  service  men  not  to  fear 
Yellow  Back  newspapers.  These  men  and  these  publi- 
cations are  bearing  most  of  the  burden  of  this  missionary- 
work,  and  are  stripping  the  newspaper  profession  of  its 
mystery.     The  results  so  far  have  been  miraculous. 

Chief  among  these  men  and  these  publications  is  J.  B. 
Wootan,  managing  editor  of  Public  Service.  I  asked 
Mr.  Wootan  to  write  me  a  short  article  telling  what  he 
considered  the  most  unfair  criticism' against  public  serv- 
ice corporations  and  the  ])roper  way  of  meeting  it.  He 
responded  with  this  article  : 

THE  MOST  UNEAIR  ATTACK 
(By  J.  B.  Wootan) 

The  most  unfair  general  attack  made  by  newspapers 
against  illuminating  companies  is  the  charge  of  excessive 
rates  of  return  on  the  investment.  The  proper  way  to 
eradicate  the  evil  is  relentless  publicity  of  the  facts. 

The  statement  is  freely  made  that  illuminating  com- 
panies as  a  rule  are  earning  not  less  than  8%  on  their  in- 
vestment and  the  talk  of  "watered  stock"  is  still  heard  in 
some  quarters.  Ill-founded  as  these  representations  are, 
their  persistent  repetition  constitutes  the  most  unfair  at- 
tack made  against  these  companies.  They  furnish  the  basis 
for  most  of  the  trouble  imposed  upon  the  investment. 
They  ignore  the  fact  that  communities  today  do  not  as  a 


rule  permit  the  utility  company  to  furnish  its  own  rate 
of  return ;  they  also  ignore  the  fact  of  the  tremendous 
hazard  involved  in  the  operation  of  an  electric  light  plant. 
Among  the  elements  of  this  hazard  are,  of  course,  the 
heavy  degree  of  depreciation  and  obsolescence;  damages 
from  accident,  not  to  speak  of  fire,  flood  and  storm  and 
the  ever-present  possibility  of  municipal  ownership. 

Public  control  and  regulation  of  public  utilities  has 
come  to  stay,  and  that  too  with  the  cordial  approval  and 
co-operation  of  the  public  utility.  But  to  be  most  effect- 
ive, it  must  be  most  fair.  There  is  no  reason  why  such 
an  investment  should  be  denied  the  right  of  a  fair  margin 
of  profit  the  same  as  any  other  character  of  investment. 
The  fact  that  the  utility  is  given  a  franchise  by  the  com- 
munity does  not  alter  this  in  the  least.  This  very  fran- 
chise which  clothes  the  city  with  power  to  regulate, 
likewise  imposes  upon  the  city  the  obligation  to 
protect.  It  is  distinctly  mutual  in  its  motive 
and  purpose.  But  in  the  franchise  the  utility  enjoys 
certain  privileges  such  as  the  use  of  the  streets  for 
its  main  lines  of  conduits.  True,  but  for  what  purpose 
other  than  to  serve  the  people — public  service?  The 
utility  enjoys  no  monopoly  in  the  use  of  the  streets  even 
though  it  has  this  franchise.  Every  merchant  and  news- 
paper in  the  city  uses  the  streets  for  every  purpose  it  may 
desire. 

There  comes  to  mind  at  this  point  a  certain  city  in 
which  the  illuminating  companies  have  asked  the  authori- 
ties for  the  right  to  earn  7^  %  on  their  actual  investment. 
In  this  same  city  one  of  the  newspapers — a  splendid  in- 
stitution, has  been  earning  5%  a  month  net  or  60%  a 
year  on  its  investment,  having  been  able  to  retire  its 
bonds.  No  one  is  denouncing  this  paper  for  its  great 
prosperity.  It  seems  to  be  very  popular  and  influential. 
Its  neighbors  seem  very  proud  of  its  remarkable  success. 


Nor  is  anyone  suggesting  that  it  would  be  fair  for  any 
public  service  corporation  to  earn  such  a  profit  as  this. 
Rut  at  the  same  time,  it  is  extremely  unfair  and  harmful 
to  misrepresent  and  hold  up  to  public  contumely  the  earn- 
ings of  an  illuminating  company  or  any  other  public  util- 
ity simply  because  it  may  seem  popular  to  do  so. 

The  state  can  make  all  sorts  of  laws  to  regulate  vested 
capital,  but  the  state  cannot  make  a  law  to  compel  a 
man  to  invest  his  money.  Advocates  of  drastic  and 
multiple  regulation  seem  to  overlook  this  important  point. 
There  is  an  old  saying  that  "capital  is  timid."  But  those 
who  have  observed  the  trend  of  legislation  affecting  in- 
vestments must  find  this  hard  to  appreciate.  There  is 
nothing  timid  about  capital  when  it  will  persist  in  ven- 
turing up  a  dark  alley,  knowing  that  at  the  other  end 
stands  a  big  fellow  with  a  dangerous  bludgeon. 

The  astonishing  fact  is  that  public  utilities  have  suc- 
ceeded as  well  as  they  have  in  financing  themselves  un- 
der conditions,  which  have  been  anything  but  encouraging 
to  capital.  Few  more  important  propositions  confront  us 
than  fair  regulation  of  these  interests  and  the  most  vital 
thing  about  fair  regulation  is  the  proper  appeal  to  the 
capital,  without  which  public  utilities  cannot  exist.  If 
this  appeal  is  to  be  heard,  then  we  shall  have  to  stop 
making  public  utilities  the  football  of  cheap  and  un- 
scrupulous politics  and  the  liolio^oblin  of  socialism. 

Socialism  insists  upon  the  "producer"  sharing  gener- 
ously in  the  products  of  his  labor.  By  "producer"  is 
meant  the  wage-earning  workman.  Very  well,  then  so- 
cialism ought  to  understand  that  without  investment  there 
can  be  no  production  and  that  the  so-called  "producer" 
above  all.  should  do  all  he  can  to  give  investment  a  square 
deal;  to  create  and  maintain  conditions  that  will  insj^irc 
investment  and  enable  it  to  do  its  best. 


The  whole  thino^,  in  short,  comes  down  to  the  matter 
of  mutual  interest  between  all  elements.  That  is  far 
more  important  than  the  selfish  interest  of  any  individual 
or  set  of  individuals,  who  are  preying  upon  the  credulity 
of  the  mass  and  the  power  of  the  class  for  their  own  un- 
scrupulous ends. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Former  Nen'spapcr  Editor  Gnrs  .Idz'icc 

AMONG  gas  companies  at  least,  wonderful  results 
are  being  accomplished  by  The  Gas  Record. 

Mr.  Milt  Saul,  its  editor,  was  formerly  a  news- 
paper man  and  publicist  for  large  utility  corporations. 

For  that  reason  there  is  reprinted  here  a  valuable  and 
interesting  article  by  Mr  Saul : 

THE  MOST  UNFAIR  CRITICISM 
By  Milt  Saul,  Editor  The  Gas  Record 

The  political  demagogue's  favorite  phrase,  "soulless 
corporation,"  has  been  taken  from  him.  No  more  do  we 
hear  from  his  frothing  lips  the  old  slogan  of  war:  "Put 
me  in  ofhce  and  I'll  save  you  from  the  octopus !"  The 
gentle  art  of  publicity  has  educated  his  constituency  out 
of  range  of  such  weapons. 

Gone,  too,  are  the  familiar  old  terms  "exorbitant 
rates,"  "set  of  thieves,"  "owns  the  council."  "political 
tjxers,"  and  the  like.  The  institutit)n  of  public  service 
commissions  and  special  authorities  with  power  to  in- 
vestigate rates,  together  with  the  glare  of  publicity  thrown 
upon  the  so-called  sources  of  these  complimentary 
bouquets,  not  only  effaced  the  guilty  but  served  to  create 
a  widespread  impression  that  all  public  service  companies 
now  regard  commercial  honesty  and  the  political  stiuarc 
deal  as  the  best  business  ])olicy. 

What  feature  of  public  utility  service  remains,  then, 
open  to  criticism,  fair  or  unfair? 


It  is  the  character  of  the  service  performed. 

Without  doubt  there  is  yet  room  for  improvement  in 
tliis  department,  but  there  is  on  the  other  hand  more  un- 
fair criticism  against  the  pubHc  service  companies  on 
this  subject  than  perhaps  on  any  othe*"  phase  of  their 
activities.  The  pubHc  has  been  led  to  believe  that  noth- 
ing short  of  perfection  is  permissible  in  public  service, 
and  no  thought  apparently  is  taken  of  the  ever  present 
human  element  in  the  administration  and  execution  of  this 
service,  or  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  limit  to  human  ca- 
pacity. Criticism,  public  at  times  but  far  more  preva- 
lent in  the  family  circle  and  among  individuals  of  a  neigh- 
borhood, is  therefore  at  large  like  the  germs  of  a  fever, 
and  very  often  it  is  quite  as  contagious  and  just  as  harm- 
ful to  its  victims. 

We  still  have  with  us  the  individual  who  loudly  pro- 
claims that  his  gas,  electric  or  transportation  service  is 
"the  limit."  We  will  never  quite  satisfy  him  or  his  kind, 
of  course.  He  goes  about  with  a  perpetual  grouch  against 
us.  He  is  the  individual  to  whom  a  popular  contem- 
porary cartoonist  refers  as  "the  terrible  tempered  Mr. 
Bang,"  and  there  are  many  of  him.  His  influence  is  as 
wide  as  his  prejudice  is  strong.  The  burden  of  his  unfair 
strictures  and  the  material  consequences  of  his  crusades, 
vv'hile  they  do  not  show^  in  the  newspapers,  are  very  def- 
inite in  the  aggregate  and  they  show  very  conspicuously 
in  the  company's  cash  books  and  ledgers. 

Criticisms  of  this  character  are  unfair  because  they 
strike  at  individuals  just  as  earnest  and  just  as  energetic, 
yet  just  as  fallible  as  "the  terrible  tempered  Mr.  Bang." 
When  he  goes  about  with  his  loose  complaints  and  his 
street-car  chatter  and  his  sidewalk  gossip  and  his  thirst 
for  vengeance  just  because  his  lights  were  not  repaired 
the  minute  he  found  they  were  defective,  he  may  not 


realize  it  but  the  individual  responsible  for  the  delay  may 
be  a  faithful  employee  with  a  large  family  whose  appar- 
ent fault  was  due  to  illness,  or  to  some  minor  mistake 
that  all  humans  are  liable  to  make. 

It  does  not  occur  to  the  terrible  tempered  one  that  his 
activities  may  cost  this  employee  his  job  and  entail  suffer- 
ing upon  the  wife  and  children.  He  does  not  pause  to 
reflect  that  possibly  the  one  whose  mistake  caused  his  in- 
convenience sits  regularly  through  the  long  watches  of  the 
night,  waiting  the  call  to  service,  and  that  over- fatigue 
may  have  caused  a  mistake.  He  may  not,  yet  he  should 
know,  that  a  public  service  company  employs  none  but 
the  most  capable  and  efficient  men  obtainable  to  render 
service  to  the  homes  and  business  institutions  of  their 
community,  and  that  when  an  error  is  committeed  it  is 
usually  quite  as  excusable  as  the  errors  all  of  us  make, 
even  in  the  best  regulated  families.  He  may  not  know  it 
and  he  may  not  care,  but  nevertheless  he  is  guilty  of  a 
serious  offense.  He  is  undermining  our  character  as  a 
public  servant,  and  it  isn't  fair. 

What  is  the  remedy  for  the  contagious  criticisms  of 
the  terrible  tempered  Mr.  Bangses? 

It  is  the  same  medicine  that  has  cured  our  former  ills. 
It  is  publicity. 

Mr.  Bang  and  his  neighl)ors  must  be  informed  of  the 
type  of  men  we  employ  to  render  our  service  to  the  pub- 
lic. They  must  be  told  of  the  numbers  we  employ,  the 
sums  we  spend  in  wages,  the  precautions  we  take  at  great 
expense  to  prevent  mistakes  and  to  make  our  service  as 
near  perfect  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it. 

We  can  at  least  inform  the  neighbors,  and  then  when 
Mr.  Bang  comes  along  witli  his  great  grouch  he  will  not 
find  so  many  others  ready  to  listen  to  him. 


There  is  no  antidote  for  unfair  criticism,  ])ul)lic  or 
private,  so  efifective  as  wide-spread  information.  Facts, 
in  large  doses,  will  cure  the  most  malignant  contagion 
of  unfair  complaint. 


CHAPTER  XV 


Passing  the  Buck 


M 


AY  BE  I  am  wrong,  but  of  all  public  utilities  in 
America  today,  I  believe  the  street  railway  com- 
panies are  least  molested. 


And  probably  the  first  real  big  fight  ever  waged  against 
a  public  utility  by  a  municipality  was  against  a  street  rail- 
way  company. 

Again  I  may  be  wrong,  but  from  talking  with  news- 
paper men,  politicians  and  others  on  the  inside,  I  believe 
llie  reason  for  this  is  that  municipal  politicians  realized 
that  they  were  taking  a  bigger  bite  than  they  could  swal- 
low, when  they  started  attacks  on  street  railway  com- 
panies. 

Said  the  politician  to  himself:  "I  am  making  an  ass 
of  myself  in  trying  to  keep  up  a  system  of  wires,  tracks, 
schedules,  power  stations,  rolling  stock  and  handle  rush 
crowds  one  hour  and  laggers  another,  when  I  can  make 
just  as  big  a  hit  witli  the  people  by  assailing  the  illum- 
inating company  wIkmc  there  are  only  wires  and  power 
plants  to  maintain." 

Sounds  simple,  but  I  really  belic\e  that  was  the  birth 
of  the  avalanche  of  attacks  on  illuminating  companies. 

I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  street  railways  have 
a  soft  snap.  The\-  haven't.  l!ut  there  is  one  advantage 
that  the  street  railway  company  has  over  another  utility. 
I  f  a  man  does  not  get  a  seat  he  is  angry  with  the  man  who 
did  get  one  and  blames  him,  whereas  if  a  customer  does 


not  get  gas  or  electricity  or  water  he  blames  the  utility 
serving  him.     He  does  not  blame  his  neighbor. 

Much  of  the  criticism  against  street  railways  arises 
from  condition  of  pavements  and  torn  up  streets.  And 
in  a  majority  of  the  cases  the  utility  is  blameless. 

Such  criticism  usually  results  in  this  way: 

February  1,  the  city  orders  the  railway  company  to 
have  its  pavement  torn  up  in  a  certain  section,  so  that 
sewer  pipes  may  be  laid  April  1st. 

April  1,  pavement  is  torn  up. 

April  2,  criticism  commences. 

April  3,  newspaper  stories  appear, 

April  4-April  30,  newspaper  criticism  continues. 

May  1,  city  commences  laying  sewer. 

The  city  is  to  blame — the  railway  company  suffers 
the  criticism. 

Then  again  in  most  cities  railway  companies  are  forced 
to  keep  the  pavement  between  their  tracks  in  good  repair. 

In  a  city  I  know  of  a  railway  company  was  recently 
ordered  to  repair  140  holes  in  a  system  with  300  miles  of 
tracks. 

The  streets  in  the  city  were  in  terrible  condition. 
Cartoons  appeared  daily  with  captions,  "Crossing  the 
Alps  in  Nth  street."  The  cartoonist  w^ould  show  a  motor- 
ist bouncing  from  one  pavement  rut  to  another. 

Newspaper  reporters  were  sent  to  the  city  hall  to  go 
after  officials.  Then  commenced  the  work  of  passing  the 
buck. 


"Yes,  the  pavements  are  in  bad  shape,"  officials  ad- 
mitted. "We  have  been  investigating  condition  of  the 
streets  for  several  weeks  and  have  ordered  the  street 
railway  company  to  make  repairs  immediately."  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  railway  company  was  ordered  to  pave 
140  holes  in  300  miles  of  tracks  or  about  one  hole  in 
every  two  miles.  The  officials  got  away  with  it,  quietly 
started  some  repair  work  of  their  own  and  by  passing 
the  buck,  escaped  criticism.  The  street  railway  company 
was  showered  with  enough  brickl^ats  to  pave  a  thousand 
ruts.     It  is  a  great  game. 

As  I  said  before,  the  passenger  who  does  not  get  a 
scat  seldom  raves  about  the  railway  company.  \Ve  now 
come  to  the  passenger  who  must  wait  unduly  long  for  a 
car. 

I  know  of  a  certain  city  where  the  car  service  was 
unusually  poor.  Criticism  was  heaped  upon  the  railway 
company  from  every  source.  And  as  usual  the  city  offi- 
cials and  the  police  were  at  fault. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  slow  vehicle  traffic  in  this 
city.  Wagon  drivers  were  in  the  habit  of  driving  in  the 
tracks  and  no  amount  of  gouging  would  get  them  out 
until  they  were  ready. 

There  were  cases  where  cars  were  delayed  as  high  as 
32  minutes.  And  all  the  lime  the  street  railway  com- 
pany was  getting  the  blame. 

Finally  the  street  car  company  screwed  up  enough 
courage  to  go  to  the  city  hall  and  demand  enforcement 
of  an  ordinance  prohibiting  such  acts  on  the  part  of  slow 
vehicle  drivers.  For  years  the  police  and  city  hall  had 
not  been  enforcing  the  ordinances  and  the  street  car  com- 
pany had  borne  in  silence  the  blame  for  poor  service. 


When  they  demanded  it,  the  ordinance  was  enforced, 
offenders  were  arrested  and  lined,  and  today  the  railway 
company  maintains  excellent  service  and  complaints  are 
isolated.  The  remedy  was  simple,  easily  applied  and  the 
I  esults  wonderful. 

And  still  today  there  are  cities,  and  good  sized  ones 
too,  where  schedules  are  literally  shot  to  pieces  by  such 
tactics  and  for  some  inconceivable  reason  nothing  is  done 
to  correct  the  evil. 


I 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Telephone   Companies   in    Clover 

F  this  book  would  have  been  written  five  years  ago 
we  could  have  said  a  lot  about  telephone  companies. 


There  is  a  little  to  say  today.     Compared  to  other 
utilities  they  are  in  clover. 

And  it  is  due  to  their  own  good  judgment  that  they 
are  there.  The  national  publicity  of  the  ISell  Telephone 
Company  has  practically  wiped  out  all  adverse  sentiment 
against  telephone  comi)anies  as  a  whole. 

The  bigger  systems  have  aided  greatly  l)\-  rcfjuiring 
t'leir  help  to  always  be  courteous  and  considerate.  I'll 
wager  that  practically  every  telephone  company  cuplnyc 
says  "thank  you"  and  "please"  one  thousand  times  each 
day.  It  would  not  do  an\'  injury  for  all  employes  of 
utilities  to  follow  suit. 

A  majority  of  telei)hone  kickers  today,  and  there  are 
few  of  them,  live  on  party  lines,  where  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  get  service  when  you  want  it.  Usually  then 
liic  customer  vents  his  rage  on  the  poor  telephone  central 
oi-  the  nciglil)oi-  who  is  using  the  [)honc.  'rclci)lionc  com- 
panies have  nearly  soKed  their  pioblems.  TIk'N'  occup\- 
an  enviable  jxisition. 


I  an)  going  to  lake  a<I\antagc  <if  lliis  ()j)pi  iiiunity  to 
say  something  about  comtesy.  A  few  months  ago  the 
president  of  a  public  service  corporation  asked  me  to 
write   him   some   advertisements   dealing;    witb    courlesv. 


After  spending  one  week  in  studying  his  problems  and 
standing  in  the  handsome  lobby  of  his  building,  I  went  to 
his  ofifice  and  said  : 

"Pay  me  the  money  and  put  me  on  a  job  where  I  can 
meet  your  customers  and  show  them  courtesy  and  I  will 
make  more  friends  in  one  day  than  we  can  make  in  a 
month  through  advertising  courtesy.  It  would  be  suicide 
to  try  to  make  friends  through  advertising  with  the  bunch 
you  now  have  waiting  on  the  people." 

Orders  were  immediately  issued  requiring  every  em- 
ployee to  say  "Please"  when  making  a  request  to  a 
customer.  They  were  also  required  to  say  "Thank  you" 
when   a  request  was  complied  with  or  bills  were  paid. 

They  wxre  first  made  to  know  that  the  Company  ap- 
preciated them  and  expected  them  to  show  appreciation 
to  their  customers.  Reciprocity  is  a  natural  law  that 
cannot  be  denied  and  the  customers  were  quick  to  respond 
to  courteous,  appreciative  treatment.  Today  that  public 
service  corporation  is  actually  popular  and  there  is  not  a 
yellow  newspaper  existing  which  would  dare  to  make  an 
attack  upon  it. 

In  this  case,  as  in  all  cases,  the  poor,  suffering  people 
merely  wanted  the  corporation  to  show  them  courtesy  and 
cater  to  them.  They  appreciated  the  Company's  service 
and  its  product,  but  they  did  miss  courteous  treatment 
and  some  display  of  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  cor- 
poration employees. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  a  long  discourse  for 
every  person  knows  what  courtesy  is  and  how  to  be 
courteous.  If  you  have  an  employee  who  does  not  know, 
you  better  get  rid  of  him  quick.  However,  I  would  re- 
quire every  employee  to  show  strict  observance  of  these 
three  rules: 


One:  Overlook  all  rudeness  and  unkindness  in  cus- 
tomers. 

Two :     Be  kind. 

Three:  Greet  the  customer  when  he  enters  and  say 
"Good  Bye"  when  he  leaves. 

It  will  not  injure  a  corporation  or  a  corporations's 
morals  for  employees  to  show  the  same  spirit  toward  one 
another  that  they  are  required  to  show  toward  customers. 


Ut   *^ery    person    in    Greater    Cleveland    lend 
Ihe.r  .upporl   and— Boom  the  Babici. 


h  is  the  privilege  of  The  E»»t  Ohio  G«»  Com- 
pany  to   keep   ThouMinda  of  Baiii«»   warm— to 
4>«at  Ihe  water  for  their  batht. 
Motheri  like  the  Comfort,  and  CooVemenee*  of 
Ca»  Service. 


n^  They  enjoy  ihe  Tir 


Baby'i   Health   l»   €!.;■ 


with  Baby. 
,  Economy. 
Baby  for— 


BABY    WEEK    OPPOR- 
TUNITIES 

Every  year  the  entire 
country  observes  Better 
Baby   Week. 

It  offers  wonderful  op- 
portunities for  gas  and 
electric  companies  to  se- 
cure valuable  good-will 
and   sales  publicity. 

The  manner  in  which 
one  advertising  manager 
took  advantage  of  his 
opportunity  is  shown  on 
these  pages.  The  adver- 
tisements caused  a  great 
deal  of  comment.  If  you 
like  the  advertisements, 
copy   them   this   year. 


ur  new  d»pl*y  room  wUI  ihow  j 
«ppliKnc»  in  opWoUon. 


Service"  Department  for  informotion  on  House 


CHAPTER  XYII 
Public  Control  of  Utilities 

I  DO  not  think  there  is  a  person  who  reads  this  book 
who  will  dispute  Mr.  Wootan's  statement  that  "public 
control  and  regulation  of  utilities  is  here  to  stay  and 
that,  too,  with  the  cordial  approval  and  co-operation  of 
the  utility." 

But  it  must  be  fair — much  mgre  so  than  at  present. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  hazardous  investment 
required  to  furnish  public  service  should  be  denied  the 
light  of  a  fair  margin  of  profit  the  same  as  a  newspaper, 
a  bank  or  a  grocery  store. 

The  fact  that  a  utility  is  given  a  franchise  by  the 
community  does  not  alter  this  one  whit. 

The  city  grants  permission  to  a  ulilit}-  to  use  the 
streets  to  render  the  people  a  service.  It  retains  the 
right  to  regulate  the  utility.  lUit  it  does  not  seem  to 
think  it  is  obligated  to  j^rotect  the  service.  On  the  other 
hand,  some  city  officials  and  newspapers  think  the  utilitv 
is  there  to  be  destroyed. 

The  utility  enjoys  no  monopoly  of  the  streets.  Every 
merchant  and  newspaper  uses  them  for  whatever  purpose 
they  may  desire. 

The  howl  of  yellow  newspapers  and  peanut  politicians 
about  giving  a  utility  permission  to  use  the  streets  to 
furnish  a  genuine  service  is  bunk  and  tommyrot. 

I  know  a  utility  would  much  rather  sell  its  electricity, 
gas,  telephone  calls,  street  car  rides  or  water  in  packages 
the  same  as  the  merchant. 


I  know  it  would  be  a  thousand  times  cheaper  for  them 
to  maintain  a  fleet  of  autoniol)ile  delivery  trucks  to  serve 
the  people,  rather  than  expensive  pipe,  railway  or  wire 
distributing  systems. 

And  I  know  they  would  make  a  great  deal  more 
money. 

While  talking  about  fair  treatment  of  public  util- 
ities I  want  to  drag  public  utilities  commissions  into 
the  limelight.  Personally  I  have  never  met  but  one 
man  from  the  office  of  a  public  utilities  commission, 
and  he  was  as  square  to  public  service  corpora- 
tions as  any  man  I  ever  met.  It  is  claimed  by  many 
that  the  commissions  in  various  states  are  not  treating 
them  quite  as  squarely  as  they  could.  I  hardly  believe 
that  this  is  as  serious  as  most  of  them  believe.  There 
are  instances,  however,  where  a  great  injustice  is  done 
public  service  corporations  because  the  commissions  are 
wrongly  advised,  as  witness  this  episode : 

A  highly  reputed  and  very  distinguished  expert  was 
testifying  before  the  public  utilities  commission  of  one 
of  our  states  a  short  time  ago.  He  was  a  state  witness 
against  a  public  utility.  He  stated  that  he  had  made 
a  very  careful  investigation  of  certain  conditions  in  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania.  On  cross-examination  he  was 
asked  if  he  had  visited  Duquesne  county.  The  expert 
\\  ith  much  gusto  and  puffing  stated  that  he  had  made 
a  very  careful  investigation  in  Duquesne  county  and 
had  talked  with  numerous  reliable  and  well-informed 
persons.  He  gave  a  great  real  of  stout  testi- 
mony for  the  state.  After  he  had  continued  at  some 
length  he  was  asked  to  locate  Duquesne  county,  and 
could  not  do  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  Duquesne 
county  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the  witness  had  evidently 
confused  Duquesne  count}^  with  Duquesne  club  cocktails. 


A 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

Advice  From  Public  Service  Man 

S  a  newspaper  man  I  was  constantly  in  intimate 
touch  with  men  and  women,  big  and  Httle,  crooked 
and  straight,  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 


Presidents,  governors,  senators,  congressmen,  mayors, 
sheriffs,  police,  coke  sniffers,  pickpockets  and  murderers. 
I  have  known  many,  I  have  met  many,  but — 

Of  all  the  men  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  with  whom  I 
have  come  in  contact,  I  have  never  met  one,  who  to  my 
notion,  was  quite  as  clever,  as  honest,  and  broad-minded 
as  the  president  of  a  large  middle  west  public  utility. 

And  I  say  this  despite  the  fact  that  one  time  when  a 
reporter  he  nearly  threw  me  out  of  his  office  when  I 
asked  him  to  uniform  his  employes  so  that  housewives 
might  identify  them  from  thugs. 

I  have  never  met  a  man  in  the  advertising  or  publicity 
profession  who  had  a  clearer  understanding  of  Publicity 
than  this  man. 

For  that  reason  there  is  reprinted  here  excerpts  from 
?.n  address  he  once  delivered  on  Publicity : 

Use  Discriminating  Publicity 

"The  success  of  public  service  companies  depends  on 
a  clear  understanding  and  appreciation  by  the  public  of 
the  service  rendered. 

"And  I  am  personally  inclined  to  favor  a  clear,  def- 
inite presentation  of  the  facts  to  the  public. 

"I  favor  this,  because  I  believe  that  an  honest,  con- 


servative  policy  of  publicity  is  conducive  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  any  public  service  company. 

"But  that  policy  must  be  discriminative  and  discrim- 
inating. 

"Publicity  is  not  an  unmixed  good. 

"But  it  Is  also  not  an  unmixed  evil. 

"It  is  a  two-edged  sword. 

"It  cuts  both  ways. 

"A  good  deal  depends  on  the  man  who  is  handling 
the  weapon. 

"He  may  cut  himself,  if  he  rushes  into  print  too  often, 
or  too  carelessly. 

"Or  he  can  cut  down  opposition  and  hostile  opinion, 
if  he  uses  frankness  and  discretion. 

"If  you  haven't  something  pleasant  to  say  to  the  pub- 
lic, it's  a  pretty  good  rule  not  to  say  anything. 

"The  old  idea  of  'making  the  public  like  it'  was  brutal 
and  uncharitable  to  begin  with. 

"But,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  it  was  unbusiness- 
like. 

"It  was  founded  on  the  mistaken  idea  that  good-will 
wasn't  worth  anything  in  dollars  and  cents. 

"The  wise  modern  manager  knows  better. 

"He  knows  that  good-will  is  a  distinct  asset. 

"He  knows  that  if  he  is  constantly  at  war  with  the 
world,  in  his  private  life,  he  suffers  for  it  as  an  individ- 
ual. 

"And  he  also  knows  that  if  he  is  continuously  at  war 
with  public  opinion,  in  his  commercial  operations,  he 
suffers  for  it  as  a  business  man. 


"Some  editors,  no  doubt,  abuse  their  power. 
"And  so  do  some  public  service  corporations. 

"Editors,  as  a  class,  are  just  average  good  men,  like 
the  rest  of  us. 

"They  have  their  faults.    And  so  have  we. 

"We  can't  keep  the  good-will  of  some  pai)ers,  no  mat- 
ter how  fairly  and  squarely  we  deal. 

"It's  their  business  to  oppose. 

"But,  in  the  mass,  and  as  a  class,  publishers  will 
measure  up  with  the  rest  of  us.  at  least. 

"And  even  if  you  find  them  unfair — it's  poor  business 
to  try  and  fight  that  unfairness  by  angrily  rushing  into 
print. 

"The  minute  you  get  angry,  you,  too,  become — unfair 
— and  the  newspaper  pounds  you  to  pieces. 

"You'd  far  better  keep  your  tcmj^cr,  and  reply  tem- 
perately— if  you  reply  at  all. 

"What  you  consider  unfair  in  the  editor,  probably 
seems  fair  to  him. 

"Try  and  convince  him  of  it  first,  man  to  man. 

"If  you  can't — keep  a  cno\.  still  tongue  between  your 
teeth. 

"In  the  language  of  the  Mutt  and  Jeff  cartoons — 'For 
the  love  of  Mike,  be  reasonable' — be  reasonable  above 
and  beyond  everything  else. 

"vSometimes  silence  is  the  best  sort  of  publicity. 

"If  you  refrain  from  making  the  hot  retort  you  meant 
to  make,  when  your  feelings  were  "roused,  it's  astonishing 
how  glad  you'll  feci  sometimes,  a  week  later. 


"The  silent  man  nearly  always  has  the  best  of  an 
emergency — anyway. 

"The  letter  that  wasn't  written  is  often  the  letter  that 
got  the  business. 

"The  favor  that  wasn't  asked  is  often  the  favor  that's 
gladly  given, 

"People  cool  ofif  in  the  face  of  a  strong  but  good- 
natured  silence." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Utilities  Must  Keep  Awake 

PUBLIC  utilities  must  always  be  on  the  alert  and  be 
consistent   advertisers  to   forestall   unfair  criticism. 
They  must  anticipate  attacks   and  steal  the  news- 
papers' thunder, 

A  yellow  newspaper  and  a  couple  blackleg  politicians 
can  make  an  agitator  out  of  a  city  in  two  weeks. 

At  first  blush  the  people  are  inclined  to  give  a  patient 
and  sympathetic  ear  to  such  fools  and  their  hair  brain 
schemes. 

And  for  a  time  they  are  likely  to  build  air  castles  with 
the  dreamers  instead  of  sewers  in  the  ground  and  pave- 
ments in  the  streets. 

But  there  will  always  come  an  aw^akening. 

The  workingman  sooner  or  later  will  realize  that  fac- 
tories cannot  be  built  without  capital.  And  he  will  realize 
that  capital  does  not  have  to  beg  for  a  market  and  will 
not  go  where  treated  unfairly. 

He  will  patiently  watch  the  money  pouring  into  other 
cities  where  it  is  given  a  square  deal  and  wait  for  it  to 
recognize  his  city  in  the  sky.  But  when  it  continues  to 
pass  him  by,  the  chances  are  that  he  will  pull  stakes, 
follow  it  and  leave  the  Yellow  Back  and  the  derelict  poli- 
tician in  the  mire  with  their  uplift  fads  and  municipal 
schemes. 

And  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  awaken.  He 
is  not  the  ignorant,  easily  bamboozled  nondescript  that 
most  Yellow  Backs  believe  him  to  be. 


What  surpises  me  is  the  dormant,  sleepy,  calloused 
attitude  of  the  merchants — hard-headed  successful  busi- 
nessmen. 

They  have  money  invested.  They  must  depend  on  a 
thrifty  city  for  protection  of  their  investment.  They 
support  the  newspapers  with  their  advertising. 

And  99  times  out  of  100  you  will  find  their  adver- 
tising choking  the  very  Yellow  sheet  which  is  under- 
mining their  business  with  agitation  and  unfair  hostility 
that  builds  circulation  for  a  time — but  which  keeps  cap- 
ital and  industries  out  of  their  city. 

Just  why  these  merchants  remain  dumfounded  while 
a  newspaper  hammers  honest  industry  and  keeps  build- 
ers out  of  a  city  is  more  than  I  can  fathom. 

Directly  they  are  not  being  attacked. 

But  indirectly  they  are  the  real  sufferers — the  real 
losers. 

The  wonder  of  it  is,  that  they  do  not  see  it. 


CHAPTER  XX 

Sell  Service 

PUBLIC  service  men  admit  that  they  are  persecuted 
by  some  newspapers. 

And  they  admit  that  a  great  number  of  their  cus- 
tomers have  a  mistaken  idea  of  the  value  of  the  service 
they  render. 

They  should  realize  that  these  conditions  are  nega- 
tive and  that  they  should  be  made  positive. 

Knowing  that  they  have  a  valuable  service  and  that 
they  are  giving  the  public  its  money's  worth,  I  cannot 
understand  why  they  do  not  take  the  proper  steps  to 
eradicate  dangerous  and  damaging  misconceptions  of  the 
service  they  are  rendering. 

Looking  at  this  tangled  problem  from  the  viewpoint 
of  a  newspaperman  and  a  rank  outsider,  but  also  as  one 
who  is  familiar  with  public  service,  I  will  try  to  show 
some  of  the  steps  which  might  be  taken  to  get  on  a  closer 
and  friendlier  relation  with  the  newspaper  and  the  public. 

Courtesy  and  Humanity  Needed 

First — It  is  presumed  that  fundamentally  the  corpor- 
ation is  grounded  on  courtesy — courtesy  such  as  I  have 
told  about. 

Second — Be  human. 

I  have  found  that  some  public  service  corporations 
and  some  of  the  foremost  utility  men  have  a  mistaken 
idea  of  dignity.  They  think  that  the  minute  their  invest- 
ment reaches  nine  figures  and  their  dividends  show  six 
per  cent,  that  they  should  immediately  assume  a  dignified 


plutocractic  attitude.  They  become  arrogant  and  stand- 
offish, and  wonder  why  the  pubhc  disHkes  to  do  business 
with  them.  They  forget  the  days  when  they  had  to  be 
sweet-tempered  and  patient,  and  they  acquire  a  starchy 
attitude  that  spells  unfriendliness. 

Third — Have  one  person  to  meet  and  study  the 
people. 

No  one  can  deny  that  the  people  rule.  Even  a  public 
utility  man  will  tell  you  that.  But  while  admitting  this, 
most  of  them  are  neglecting  to  send  an  ambassador  to 
the  people  to  clearly  and  honestly  present  the  cause  of 
the  utility  in  a  friendly  way. 

The  bigger  the  corporation  the  more  friendly  it  must 
be.  To  keep  on  good  terms  with  the  people,  it  must 
smile,  cater,  shake  hands  and  show  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  the  people.  A  man  will  jump  from  the  path 
of  a  Packard.  A  little  Ford  does  not  terrorize  him. 
The  people  are  naturally  more  afraid  of  a  big  corporation 
than  they  are  of  a  small  one.  It  is  up  to  the  big  corpora- 
tions to  show  that  they  are,  if  anything,  more  desirable 
and  more  friendly  than  a  small  corporation,  instead  of 
more  dangerous. 

Fourth — Sell  service. 

The  Colossal  Mistake  of  the  Past 

Most  public  service  corporations  are  not  selling  their 
most  valuable  commodity.  It  has  been  their  custom  to 
sell  gas,  electricity,  water  and  railway  tickets — while  they 
furnish  service.  This  has  been  one  of  their  biggest  mis- 
takes. The  very  minute  they  stop  this  and  start  to  sell 
gas  service,  electric  service,  germless  water  service  and 
safe  railway  service,  just  that  minute  will  there  be  a 
noticeable  change  on  the  part  of  their  patrons. 


A  gas  company  buys  meters  for  the  service  they  give 
— not  because  they  are  merely  meters.  An  electric  com- 
pany buys  wire  for  the  service  it  will  give — not  because 
it  is  wire.  There  are  thousands  of  pumps  being  sold,  but 
a  water  company  will  buy  the  one  which  gives  the  best 
service.  A  railway  company  will  purchase  the  cars  which 
give  the  best  service.  Everything  that  a  utility  purchases 
must  give  service.  Utilities  are  in  the  business  of  selling 
service.  Being  in  the  business  of  selling  a  certain  service, 
I  cannot  understand  why  most  of  them  insist  on  merely 
selling  gas,  electricity,  water  or  railway  tickets.  It  costs 
millions  to  give  service,  but  very  few  of  them  are  selling 
it  in  their  advertising  and  through  their  salesmen.  And 
do  not  forget  that  to  give  the  best  service,  every  man 
must  furnish  interested  co-operation  and  not  indifferent 
and  arbitrary  attention. 

Public  service  companies  of  the  gas,  water  and  elec- 
tricity type  will  also  take  another  step  forward  when  they 
quit  selling  their  service  to  "consumers"  and  stop  ad- 
vertising to  "consumers." 

Consume  means  to  destroy,  swallow  up,  absorb,  waste, 
squander,  dissipate.  For  instance:  a  fire  consumes  a 
house. 

But  a  customer  buys  something  regularly  and  re- 
peatedly and  gets  his  money's  worth.  I  think  it  is  high 
time  that  public  service  companies  were  honoring  a 
patron  with  the  title  of  "customer." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Do  Not  Advertise,  If — 

THERE  is  no  doubt  but  what  the  best  way  to  reach 
a  customer  is  through  newspaper  advertising. 
But  every  public  service  corporation  should  not 
advertise. 

The  only  ones  who  should  spend  any  money  to  reach 
their  customers  are  those  who  are  rendering  a  service. 
H  your  company  is  merely  selling  gas,  or  electricity,  or 
water,  or  railway  tickets,  then  it  will  do  you  no  good  to 
advertise.  H  on  the  other  hand  it  is  rendering  a  real 
service  and  the  people  do  not  appreciate  the  value  of  this 
service,  it  is  up  to  you  to  advertise  in  a  legitimate,  honest 
way.  If  you  cannot  find  a  man  who  can  write  clear, 
truthful  advertising,  then  it  would  be  better  to  save  your 
money. 

Public  service  corporations  are  beginning  to  realize 
more  and  more  every  day  the  value  of  publicity.  The  day 
is  here  w^hen  it  is  to  be  decided  whether  or  not  an  open 
hand  or  a  clenched  fist  policy  shall  rule.  I  believe  I  am 
safe  in  saying  that  the  open  hand  policy  is  bound  to  rule, 
for  there  is  not  one  man  with  a  single  grain  of  intelli- 
gence, who  will  give  this  matter  the  thought  that  it  de- 
serves, who  will  not  immediately  declare  himself  in 
favor  of  being  friendly  with  the  people,  in  talking  with 
them  instead  of  AT  them. 

Remember  these  words — 

Talk  WITH  the  people. 

Do  not  talk  AT  them. 


In  the  succeeding  pages  I  am  reprinting  some  adver- 
tisements showing  how  some  corporations  are  talking 
with  their  customers.  They  typify  what  I  beHeve  to  be 
the  kind  of  advertising  that  pubHc  service  corporations 
need. 


Open  Hand  or  Clenched  Fist?      ^^:=^ 


friendly  a»  "^Z 


Can  a  $50,000,000  > 

ihe  corner  groveryman? 
Or  does  bigness  bring  arrogance,  plutocracy 

and  stand'OfiiBhn.e88? 
There   is   no   reason   under  the   sun   why^t 

should! 
Wc  know,  and  you  know,  that  a  human  Open- 

Hand    policy   biings    Friendship, .  Fairness 

and  Cc-Operation. 
It  helps  us  to  understand  one  another  and  be* 

come  sympathetically  related. 
You  place  yourself  in  oiir  position  and  vou 

say: 

"What  with  a  $50,OD0.OOO  in- 
vestment  to  protect,  thousands 
of  miles  of  pipe  lines  to  mait\> 
lain,  tons  and  tons  of  miteriaU 
to  buy,  a  mammath  pay-roll  to 
meet,  175,000  families  to  serve 
perfectly,  et:.,  the  Old  Ga» 
Company  hasn't  such  a  snap 
after  all." 

On  the  other  hand  v/c  place  eurselves  in  your 
position  and  try  to  see  our  Own  imperfec- 
tions and  how  we  may  know  you  better. 

Qne  of  the  means  wc  have  of  gcUing  in  closer 
touch  with  you  is — Publicity. 

We  arc  persistent  advertisers  but  for  a  time 
we  are  going  to  ignore  all  set  advertising 
rules  and  tell  you  some  human  interest  stor* 
les  about  ourselves. 

The  next  one  appears  in  this  paper  Tuesday. 

Won't  you  watch  for  these  stories,  read  them 
and  write  us  what  you  think  of  thsm? 


TABOO  DIGNITY 

Dignity  is  the  ruination 
of  7nore  men  and  of  more 
corporations  than  any 
other  single  thing. 

You  do  not  like  to  buy 
groceries  from  a  crabbed, 
discourteous,  taciturn 
groceryman,  and  neither 
does  the  public  like  to 
buy  gas,  electricity,  or 
telej)hone  service  from  an 
arrogant  public  service 
corporation. 

The  accompanying  ad- 
vertisement typifies  the 
attitude  and  kind  of  ad- 
vertising that  will  bring 
most  benefit  to  public 
service  corporations. 


"Why  Should  the  = 
'  name  of  Co. '  Gas  ^ 
Co.   Advertise?    = 


—.— you  heat. 


Coal  g, 
Oil  giv. 


e»  you  heat. 
(  you  heat, 
gives    you 


Shrewd  bu 

are   at   the   head   of 
coal,     oil   and    gaso. 

They  furnish  keen  com- 
petition. 

The  inamcof  Co.  Ij.is 
Co.  MLSTadvertiM- 
to  meet  this  ton 
petition 

But    Ihe.e    is    still    an- 


i  why  we 


should 

advertise. 

We   sir; 

erely   wan 

t   to 

be    as 

human 

and 

close   1 

to   you   as 

the 

corner 

grocery  w 

lan. 

And  it  ii 

i  only  thru 

ad- 

vertisi 

ng  that  we 

can 

tell  yo 

u  the  inten 

sive 

humar 

■  story  of  how 

men. 

brains 

and 

money 

furnish 

you 

the  Best  and  Ch 

est     Si 

Brvice     in 

the 

World. 

Be  sure 

and  read 

our 

story 

in    this    paper 

next  Tuesday. 

WHY   ADVERTISE? 

Public  Service  men  often 
ask  themselves  the  question 
"Why  should  we  advertise?" 

They  also  hear  many  peo- 
ple ask  the  question,  "Why 
should  a  Public  Service  Cor- 
poration   advertise  ?" 

I  hope  that  you  have  asked 
yourself  that  question  and 
that  you  have  heard  other 
people  ask  it,  for  I  believe 
the  accompanying  advertise- 
ment answers  it.  The  same 
advertisement  with  a  few 
changes  can  be  applied  to 
most  any  public  service  cor- 
poration. 


-  —       "Service  and  '. 


Baby's  bath  water  is  gas  heated. 

Baby's  food  is  warmed  with 
gas. 

In  most  homes  the  atmosphere 
is  kept  clean  and  of  an  even 
temperature — with  gas. 

Playing  the  part  we  do  in  pre- 
serving Baby's  health  we  are 
naturally  interested  in  all 
babies. 

Last  year  in  our  own  organiza- 
tion there  were  over  300 
babies  born. 

Which  has  nothing  to  do  with 
furnishing  you  the  Best  and 
Cheapest  Gas  Service  in  the 
world — but  we  thought  it 
might  interest  you. 

Watch  for  our  next  story.  We 
are  going  to  tell  you  the 
number  of  children  support- 
ed by  our  men. 

( Name  of  Company ) 


HELP    BABY,    HELP 
YOURSELF 

Nothing  will  so  attract 
attention  as  the  picture 
of  a  baby. 

If  you  ever  have  the 
opportunity  to  write  an 
adi-ertisement  around 
baby,  its  health  or  com- 
fort, by  all  means  take 
advantage  of  it  the  same 
as  an  advertising  wiana- 
ger  did  in  the  accompany- 
ing  advertisement. 


"Service  and  Courtesy' 


CHAPTER  XXII 
Advertisement  Cause  Comment 

THE  advertisement  you  have  just  read  and  similar 
ones  created  a  great  deal  of  comment  in  the  city 
where  they  appeared. 

Customers  of  the  gas  company  wrote  many  letters, 
asking  for  more  advertisements  of  the  same  kind  and 
complimenting  the  company  on  the  stand  it  took. 

Following  are  two  samples  of  the  kind  of  letters  re- 
ceived. I  am  reprinting  them  because  they  contain  some 
valuable  hints. 

July  21,  1916. 

Gentlemen :  I  am  a  new-comer  to  this  city,  having 
l)een  here  only  two  months. 

I  hope  that  the  gas  comi)any  employes  here  are  as 
courteous  as  those  in  ...  ,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
they  are.  If  they  are  as  al)usive  as  telephone  company 
employes  in  .  .  .  ,  they  will  surely  LAUGH  at  your 
advertising.  They  will  know  that  you  are  not  sincere. 
And  if  they  know  it  it  won't  be  long  before  others  know 
it  too.  If  you  are  not  treating  your  employes  as  your 
advertisement  infers  then  your  advertising  is  not  onlv 
childish,  but  foolish. 

Taking  it  for  granted  that  you  do  treat  your  c  n- 
ployes  justly,  I  do  not  think  your  advertising  childish. 
On  the  contrary  in  no  Ijctter  way  can  you  gain  the  con- 
fidence of  those  to  whom  you  sell  your  wares,  gas,  stoves, 
accessories,  etc. 

Of  course  it  is  not  uj)  to  me  to  tell  you  how  to  run 
your  advertising  department,  but  since  vou  ask  for  frank 


criticism  I  am  going  to  give  it  to  you  straight  from  the 
shoulder — or  rather  typewriter. 

I  would  carry  your  advertising  even  further,  I  would 
tell  what  you  do  to  make  your  employes  happy  and  con- 
tented. I  would  take  an  entire  page  in  a  newspaper  and 
print  all  their  pictures  there.  In  separate  advertisements 
I  would  run  the  names  of  the  men  or  women  in  certain 
departments,  right  down  to  the  office  boy. 

And  I  wouldn't  stop  there.  I  would  encourage  every 
man  and  woman  and  youth  who  works  for  the  company 
to  buy  property.  I  would  loan  them  the  money  on  mxort- 
gage.  And  I  would  advertise  that  I  did  it.  And  from 
time  to  time  I  would  publish,  if  they  would  consent,  the 
names  of  such  purchasers.  And  I  would  print  pictures 
of  their  homes. 

And  one  of  the  very  first  things  I  would  do  would 
be  to  call  a  meeting  of  all  my  employes  and  tell  them  that 
from  TODAY  ON  promotion  would  come  to  the  man  or 
woman  who  was  deserving  of  it.  And  I  would  have  a 
man  who  would  make  monthly  or  weekly  reports  on 
every  employe,  a  man  with  a  big  heart,  who  would  hear 
the  complaint  of  a  worker  who  thought  his  or  her  over- 
seer overbearing  and  tyrannical.  Don't  you  know  that 
hundreds  of  men  and  women  who  in  time  would  be  val- 
uable workers  quit  their  positions  because  of  unjust  treat- 
ment. They  know  that  it  would  be  useless  to  go  to  the 
man  higher  up.  You  know  just  as  well  as  I  do  that 
there  are  certain  firms  who  NEVER  can  keep  a  stenog- 
rapher or  clerk  or  bookkeeper  for  any  length  of  time. 
BECAUSE  THEY  DON'T  TREAT  THEIR  EM- 
PLOYES RIGHT. 

Verily  "the  heads  of  advertising  men  swim  with 
theories,  ps3xhology  and  rules,"  to  quote  your  own  ad- 
vertisement.    But  do  the  heads  of  employers  swim  with 


theories  of  justice  to  their  workers  ? 

I  am  not  an  I.  W.  W.,  Socialist,  a  hair-brained  crank. 
Just  an  every-day  American  who  believes  that  a  firm 
such  as  yours  who  can  see  the  light  of  right-treatment  of 
workers  will  profit  a  hundred-fold  as  against  the  one 
that  is  as  hard  as  flint. 

I  am  for  your  kind  of  advertising  with  all  my  heart. 
Go  to  it. 

Another  letter  received  is  reprinted  here: 

Gentlemen:  Your  advertisement  in  this  morning's 
paper  asks  for  remarks,  and  I  therefore  take  the 
liberty  of  enclosing  a  few  pages  of  ideas  hastily  jotted 
down,  with  the  hope  that  you  may  find  something  of  value 
in  them.  I  have  been  quite  interested  in  the  attempts 
made  by  various  public  service  corporations  to  influence 
public  opinion.  In  most  cases  they  have  waited  until  too 
late;  in  other  cases  they  have  stopped  too  soon,  and  in  a 
few  cases  they  have  won  out  handily.  While  not  an 
exact  parallel  to  your  company  I  would  call  attention  to 
the  work  done  by  the  City  Service  Co.  of  Chicago,  one 
of  the  shining  examples  of  how  to  make  the  public  your 
friend. 

There  is  a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  corpora- 
tions to  take  the  people  into  their  confidence,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  signs  of  the  times  that  is  favorable,  although 
it  seems  strange  that  when  the  entire  fabric  of  the  com- 
mercial world  is  woven  through  and  through  with  con- 
fidence it  has  taken  so  long  to  learn  that  the  confidence  of 
the  public  has  real  value.  However,  we  are  waking  up 
at  last  and  I  would  be  glad  to  see  your  company  take  a 
leading  position  in  the  good  work. 

While  advertising  experts  advance  many  formulas, 
abstract  rules,  psychological  theories  and  mental  rules, 
all  more  or  less  at  variance  but  all  in  the  interest  of  more 


profitable  advertising,  there  are  three  facts  upon  which 
all  are  practically  agreed  : 

1.  Advertising  should  be  persistent   and   continuous, 

rather  than  interrupted  and  intermittent. 

2.  Advertising  should  attract  and  hold  the  interest  of 

the  reader. 

3.  Advertising  should  sway  the  mind  of  the  reader  to 

the  viewpoint  desired  by  the  advertiser.    Whether 
this  is  to  be  by  forcible  statement  or  mild  per- 
suasion, by  direct  effort  or  indirect  argument,  de- 
pends upon  conditions  apart  from  the  advertising 
itself. 
The    Average    Alan    will    see    a    builder    put    up    a 
$3,000.00  house,    and  will  rent  it  for  $30.00  a  month, 
move  in  and  pay  rent  for  years  without  ever  thinking  that 
he  is  paying  for  the  house.     He  knows  the  builder  in- 
vested capital  in  it  and  is  entitled  to  some  return  on  his 
investment.     But  when  it  comes  to  a  public  service  cor- 
poration he  seems  to  go  blind,  and  is  firmly  convinced 
that  the  income  from  consumers  pays  everything,  invest- 
ment, depreciation,  operating  expense,  losses  and  profit, 
chiefly  profit.     He  seems  to  know  little  or  nothing  about 
the  investment  by  stockholders  and  bondholders,  the  loans 
required  to  finance  operations,  or  the  actual  workings  of 
the  corporation,  but  is  firmly  convinced  that  what  he  is 
paying  is  too  much ;  no  matter  what  the  price  is,  it  is  too 
much. 

Take  Advantage  of  the  Average  Man's  Attitude  Tozvard 
Public  Service  Corporations 

Because  the  average  man  is  "agin"  public  service  cor- 
porations is  the  very  reason  why  there  is  a  splendid 
opportunity  for  some  such  corporation  to  become  a  shin- 
ing example  of  right  dealing  by  having  public  opinion 
with  it.     And  if  the  corporation  is  dealing  fair  with  the 


public  it  only  requires  persistent  advertising  of  the  reason 
why  kind  to  win  the  good  will  of  the  public.  Nearly  all 
disturbances  or  interruptions  of  public  service  require 
prompt  and  rapid  action  to  restore  normal  conditions,  and 
such  action  always  possesses  the  element  of  excitement, 
therefore  can  be  made  the  basis  of  interesting  advertise- 
ment. 

Inasmuch  as  the  average  man  does  little  thinking  of 
his  own,  but  gets  his  opinions  ready  made,  mostly  from 
the  newspapers,  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not  be 
influenced  by  advertising  as  well  as  by  editorials  and 
scare  head  news  fakes  of  sensational  papers.  It  requires 
steady,  persistent  work,  but  it  can  De  done — is  being  done 
by  many  concerns  today.  On  the  contrary,  though,  some 
firms  wait  until  the  last  minute  and  then  attempt  to  in- 
fluence public  opinion  under  a  handicap.  The  present  at- 
tempt of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co.  to  swing  public  opinion 
in  opposition  to  a  Government  armor  plate  plant  is  an 
example.  If  the  same  work  had  been  done  years  ago 
the  chances  for  the  success  of  their  advertising  campaign 
would  have  been  much  greater. 

As  to  advertising  about  the  number  of  employees,  the 
number  of  school  children  of  employees,  etc.,  it  is  good 
advertising,  for  it  appeals  to  the  underlying  interest  of 
the  average  man  as  to  how  the  other  man  is  living.  Also 
it  humanizes  the  company,  takes  away  some  of  the  grim, 
forbidding  "corporation"  atmosphere,  and  gives  the  im- 
pression that  your  company  is  composed  of  a .  lot  of 
human  beings  pretty  much  like  the  rest  of  us,  making  mis- 
takes, possil)ly,  but  plugging  along  at  their  work  and  try- 
ing to  do  what  they  have  to  do  in  this  world.  And  when 
you  can  get  the  great  unthinking  public  to  look  upon  a 
corporation  as  possessing  the  element  of  humanity,  as 
composed  of  persons  who  eat,  sleep  work,  play  and  suffer 
just  like  they  do,  you  have  (lri\en  the  opening  wedge  deep 


into    the   blind,    unrcascjning   prejudice   prevalent   today 
against  organized  capital. 

It  is  a  great  biological  law  governing  Nature  that 
everything  in  the  world  of  life  is  born,  has  a  period  of 
growth  and  development,  a  period  of  gradual  decline,  then 
dies.  This  applies  to  world  systems  as  well  as  to  microbes, 
and  is  not  to  be  evaded.  Another  law  is  that  growth  and  de- 
velopment proceed  best  in  a  favorable  environment.  Now 
by  the  legal  fiction  of  the  corporation  man  has  endeavored 
to  produce  a  commercial  enterprise  that  will  never  die, 
with  what  success  it  is  yet  too  early  to  determine,  although 
we  know  that  the  law  of  decline  and  death  will  eventually 
work  its  result.  But  we  do  know  it  to  be  true  that  a 
commercial  enterprise  will  grow  and  develop  best  in  a 
favorable  environment.  If  it  is  a  public  service  corpora- 
tion, therefore,  the  most  favorable  environment  will  be 
the  good  will  of  the  public.  It  must  be  true,  then,  that 
this  good  will  is  worth  going  after — is  worth  any  reason- 
able cost. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

Proper  Kind  of  Publicity  to  Use 

YOU  are  probably  a  public  service  man,  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  public  utility. 

You  probably  have  not  been  getting  a  square 
deal. 

You  probably  do  not  possess  the  friends  you  should 
have. 

And  I  know  that  you  want  them. 

One  of  the  best  ways  of  securing  them  is  through  the 
right  kind  of  advertising  and  publicity. 

But  I  hear  you  say  that  such  advertising  is  unnecessary 
if  a  company  is  giving  courteous,  valuable  and  reasonably 
priced  service. 

You  know  better. 

The  average  man  does  not  appreciate  the  vast  amount 
of  wealth,  human  energy,  brains  and  skill  required  to  give 
a  certain  service,  unless  he  is  told. 

When  he  steps  on  a  street  car  and  drops  a  nickel  in 
the  fare  box,  he  does  not  realize  that  he  is  getting  the  use 
of  an  investment  of  millions  of  nickels.  When  he  snaps 
the  electric  lights  he  does  not  realize  that  for  a  very  small 
sum  he  has  a  share  in  the  use  of  several  million  dollars 
worth  of  equipment  and  the  service  of  possibly  several 
thousand  employees.  To  appreciate  these  things  he  must 
know  them. 

No  customer  can  or  will  realize  your  problems  and 
your  obstacles  unless  you  tell  him.  And  the  more  perfect 
your  service,  the  more  you  have  to  sell,  the  more  you 
have  to  talk  and  advertise. 


They  Di«ul  h*  clvlhcd  properly. 
And  «*eri>  h»hy  U  entitled   to  m 


BABY     WEEK    OPPOR- 
TUNITIES 

Every  year  the  entire 
country  observes  Better 
Baby    Week. 

It  offers  wonderful  op- 
portunities for  gas  and 
electric  companies  to  se- 
cure valuable  good-will 
and   sales   publicity. 

The  manner  in  which 
one  advertising  manager 
took  advantage  of  his 
opportunity  is  shown  on 
these  pages.  The  adver- 
tisements caused  a  great 
deal  of  comment.  If  you 
like  the  advertisements, 
copy    them    this   year. 


EIm,  f«^  ^ni  cJoUitnt  wUI  prolil  liHl* 


TiM  b«a«  b  mM  warm  oac  hour  uij  c«M  Ike  next. 
T1t«  air  b  cl*«B  and  pure. 

Tker*  b  no  amoke,  oa  dwt,  no  loot  to  fill  babr'a 


Mar*  tIkOB  anr  othar  aintU  alenant  Gaa  S«rvt««^ 
haa  hatpad  tnolktri  ralao  Battar  Babfaa 

— HaallUar  BaMaa. 

An  ampaft  wQl  aatJvat*  iha  cmI  af  heating  toW 
hoRM  If  row  will  call  or  wrlla  (k*  '^oad  Seryict" 
Departnanl.      > 


Unreserved  publicity  will  solve  the  difficulty. 

But  it  must  be  the  right  kind. 

Assuming  now  that  you  are  furnishing  a  valuable 
service  at  a  reasonable  cost;  that  your  employes  are  cour- 
teous and  that  you  are  fair — this  is  your  biggest  problem  : 

You  must  bring  the  people  to  realize  that  the  vested 
rights  of  capital  must  be  respected  and  that  public  service 
corporations  must  be  given  a  square  deal  from  the  news- 
papers and  politicians. 

The  most,  popular  pastime  today  is  the  heaving  of 
brickbats  at  capital.  On  every  hand  corporations  of 
every  kind  are  being  unfairly  and  insolently  condemned. 
One  public  utility  after  another  is  dishonestly  held  up  to 
public  ridicule. 

When  the  street  railway  company  is  not  being  lam- 
basted on  general  principles  the  gas  companies  or  illum- 
inating companies  are  being  accused  of  charging  extor- 
tionate rates,  watering  stock  or  pumping  air  into  the  gas. 

Be  careful  or  in  ten  years'  time  you  will  be  bankrupt 
like  most  of  our  railroads,  the  most  startling  victims  of 
unfair  newspapers,  politicians,  sentiment  and  their  own 
secrecy,  silence  and  taciturnity. 

And  look  out  for  your  city.  Do  everything  that  you 
can  to  keep  it  from  becoming  like  a  "city  of  the  dead," 
similar  to  the  one  in  a  big  central  west  city. 

In  this  particular  city  75  per  cent  of  the  office  build- 
ings were  vacant ;  banks  have  made  no  appreciable  in- 
crease in  15  years  and  the  city  will  soon  have  to  make 
some  apology  for  its  condition. 

The  unfairness  of  its  politicians,  newspapers  and  cru- 
saders is  to  blame. 


Be  careful  that  you  are  not  the  next  victim— that  your 
city  is  not  the  next  one  to  be  shunned  by  capital,  by 
builders. 

Play  fair  yourself  and  demand  fairness. 

But  whatever  you  do  be  human,  courteous,  alert  and — 
advertise. 

Let  me  repeat  this  warning: 

Talk  with  your  customers. 

Do  not  talk  AT  them. 

Remember  those  words. 

You  will  win. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
Let  Bygones  Be  Bygones 

MANY  public  utility  companies  not  on  a  perfect  un- 
derstanding with  their  customers  at  the  present 
time,  expect  to  place  large  quantities  of  these  little 
books  in  the  hands  of  their  customers.  Knowing  this,  I 
have  tried  to  make  the  book  of  general  interest  to  public 
service  men  and  the  public.  Naturally  I  wanted  to  con- 
vey to  the  public  in  the  clearest  manner  this  sincere  long- 
ing of  public  utilities  to  be  on  the  friendliest  and  closest 
relations  with  them. 

Several  times  I  have  tried  to  reveal  this  unfeigned  and 
frank  desire  on  the  part  of  the  public  utility  men  but 
failed  miserably  to  express  myself  as  I  really  wanted  to. 
Just  as  I  was  about  to  give  up  in  despair  there  came  to 
me  an  article  from  Mr.  Lucius  S.  Bigelow,  a  student  of 
public  utilities  and  their  methods.  Mr.  Bigelow  is  well 
known  to  all  public  service  men  and  more  particularly  to 
gas  men  as  the  editor  of  the  Natural  Gas  Journal.  His 
article  expresses  exactly  what  I  wanted  to  put  in  words 
and  is  reprinted  here : 

LET  THE   PRESENT  OBSCURE  THE  PAST 
By  Lucius   S.   Bigelow. 

The  feuds  of  the  mountain  Whites  of  Kentucky  re- 
mind one  of  how  we  all,  in  fact,  live  more  or  less  in  the 
same  atmosphere. 

We  see  ourselves  reflected  in  these  mountain  dwellers, 
to  the  extent  that  when  once  we  have  become  inflamed 


by  any  injustice,  we  hold  it  against  not  alone  the  one  who 
has  been  unjust,  but  against  the  whole  clan,  a  score  that  it 
is  very  difficult  for  us  to  erase,  even  though  the  descend- 
ants of  the  aggressors  be  ever  so  upright  and  just. 

How  to  live  down  such  things  of  the  past,  is  not  con- 
templated by  the  mountain  Whites,  but  it  is  by  the  public 
utility  companies  of  today. 

Old  Commodore  Vanderbilt  put  words  on  a  par  with 
actions,  that  both  might  give  like  utterance  to  his  senti- 
ments regarding  the  relationship  between  the  public  and 
the  utilities. 

In  his  expression,  "The  Public  be  Damned,"  the  Com- 
modore told  the  truth  in  plain  English,  of  the  atttitude  at 
that  time  of  the  utility  corporations  which  he  controlled. 
No  doubt  the  sentiment  existed  with  many  similar  cor- 
porations in  those  days. 

Today  the  public  in  an  unjust  manner  is  holding 
against  utility  corporations  the  actions  and  words  of  days 
gone  by  and  so  they  are  as  unjust  on  their  side  today  as 
were  those  corporations,  now  passed  into  history,  so  far  as 
their  former  methods  and  management  are  concerned. 

Today  every  effort  is  put  forth  by  utility  corporations 
in  general  to  accomplish  "service"  on  behalf  of  the  pub- 
lic. "Service"  is  discussed  at  "utility"  conventions.  How 
can  we  render  the  best  and  most  acceptable  "service"  is 
a  type  of  title  of  many  papers  presented.  In  the  discus- 
sions of  papers  "Better  Service  to  the  Public"  is  fre- 
quently the  theme. 

Why  then  is  it  that  the  public  cannot,  or  will  not. 
forget  the  injustice  that  was  doubtless  the  text  of  certain 
utilities  in  former  years,  in  view  of  the  purpose  toward 
and  the  liberal  action  and  treatment  of  the  public  by 
utilities  of  todav. 


Let  this  injustice  pass  from  the  records  of  today  and 
let  the  purpose  and  intent  on  the  part  of  the  people  be  to 
forget,  if  they  cannot  forgive,  the  past.  Let  them  help 
rather  than  hinder  the  efforts  on  the  part  of  utilities  and 
make  possible  a  greater  harvest  of  service  to  the  public. 
Utilities  have  been  sowing  service  seeds  during  the  more 
recent  years  and  will  continue  to  sow  and  endeavor  faith- 
fully to  cultivate  a  closer  friendship  with  the  public  just 
as  long  as  there  is  a  chance  that  the  public  will  recipro- 
cate. 

The  whole  matter  put  in  a  nutshell  is  simply  this : 

The  public  and  the  public  service  corporations  must 
help  to  bear  one  another's  burdens  and  each  must  train 
itself  to  believe  in  the  other.  When  these  two  features 
are  accomplished  there  will  be  few  complaints  of  the  pub- 
lic service  corporations  by  the  public  and  of  the  public 
by  the  corporations. 


2tiS^9S 


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